(250d) From a Kraft Mill to a Forest Products Biorefinery

Cellulose is the most abundant organic chemical on earth, with an annual production in the biosphere of about 90 billion tonnes. When measured in energy terms, the amount of carbon synthesized by plants is equivalent to about ten times the world consumption. Renewable forest material is carbon neutral. Therefore, managed forests have enormous potential to reduce green-house gas emissions by conversion of the forest material into liquid fuels, electricity and other products now derived from nonrenewable carbon.

The forest products industry in N.A. is facing new global competitors who use the latest and largest installed technologies, and also have wood and labor cost advantages. As a result of the increasing competition the prices for forest products will continue to decrease. In order to remain competitive, the N.A. forest products industry needs to increase its revenue by producing bioenergy and new biomaterials in addition to traditional wood, pulp and paper products. The development of an Integrated Forest Products Biorefinery (IFBR) which accomplishes this goal represents a great opportunity for the industry. At the same time the IFBR concept addresses the societal need to use renewable resources rather than fossil fuels to produce commodity products, liquid fuels and electricity. The present talk will discuss the opportunities and challenges of the IFBR, a refinery which uses the kraft pulping process as the central wood separation technology to produce ethanol, biobased polymers, chemicals and wood composites besides conventional wood pulp.