New research and development work is bringing further product innovation to Canada’s forestry sector.Paul Hartley/Getty Images
When you think of innovating with wood, working with miniscule particles of wood fibre likely doesn’t come to mind. But that’s quite literally as granular as the companies comprising Canada’s forest sector go to ensure that every part of a harvested tree can, and is being used to create more sustainable, environmentally friendly product alternatives.
And it’s true: even the most miniscule particles of wood fibre have the potential to make a big impact on the environment.
Take Canadian company Performance Biofilaments for example. A joint venture between Mercer International Inc. and Resolute Forest Products, they are transforming wood fiber into tiny parts called nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) to make an array of common products better – lighter, more flexible, and more durable.
It’s a way for industry to replace non-renewable resources with renewable ones, notes Gurminder Minhas, Managing Director at Performance Biofilaments. When examining the carbon footprint of certain chemicals and products, “it’s probably a safe bet that it’s not as good as ours,” he says. “When we displace these materials with NFC, we improve performance and also allow for decarbonizing opportunities.”
Take concrete as an example. Add NFC to the mix, and as it sets, the fibres hold water, allowing the concrete to cure more slowly and with fewer cracks, which get larger over time, Minhas explains. The concrete’s structure also has smaller pores with NFC. Water and salt have a tougher time penetrating it and that prolongs its life, meaning structures such as bridges may need fewer repairs and will last longer.
Wood fibres can be mixed into plastics to make materials just as strong but lighter. Generally speaking, we’re displacing glass fibre with a natural fibre, Minhas says. “Basically we’re ‘greening’ products that are carbon intensive.”
NFCs can be added to paints and coatings to make them thicker, or shingles to make them more durable and lighter. While Performance Biofilaments focuses on larger volume industrial applications, there are also applications in cosmetics, electronics and other everyday consumer goods.
On bread bags, for example, the window panel is usually a plastic film, which makes it hard to recycle the paper bag. But NFC can be used to make a translucent film, says Alain Bourdages, vice-president of innovation and energy procurement at Resolute Forest Products.
“Now, our bread window is 100 per cent cellulose and therefore 100 per cent bio-sourced and compostable,” he adds. “So, when you end up with a little piece of dry bread at the bottom of the bag after a day or two, you can just toss it all in the compost bin.”
Innovative forestry companies are finding new ways to use every part of harvested trees.Vladimir Razguliaev/Getty Images
Canada is a great place to make NFC, Minhas says, because his company uses a technology that is similar to the way newsprint is made, and Canada has underused plants as the demand for that product declines.
The process starts with kraft pulp as the feedstock, which is made from the residual wood chips produced once a harvested tree has been transformed into lumber. It is put into a refiner and electricity is added, breaking the fibres down into smaller sections. Minhas describes it as similar to taking a cheese string and pulling off thin layers, or going from fettuccine to angel hair pasta. “You can get about 1,000 filaments for every individual fibre and then this product can go in a variety of things.”
There is an array of other uses for NFCs or kraft pulp that research institutes and companies are examining. FPInnovations, a private not-for-profit research and development organization for the forest products industry, which developed and patented the basic NFC technology used by Performance Biofilaments, is also looking at ways that the sugars in wood fibres can be fermented into a range of chemicals, including ethanol. “There are other companies and technologies being developed to further bring innovation into the forestry sector,” Minhas says.
“There’s a lot of new research and development work being done throughout Canada,” including at the University of British Columbia’s Bioproducts Institute, at the universities of McGill and Laval in Quebec, and at Guelph and Western in Ontario, he adds. “It’s an exciting time to be in the industry.”
Canada’s forest sector is also implementing and exploring additional uses of biofuels and biomass-derived energy, even turning wood chips into gases. There is also potential to create bio-based chemicals to replace petrochemicals.
“We have the potential to develop these applications using a natural product that comes from Canada’s sustainably-managed forests. That’s a golden opportunity,” Bourdages says.
“There are people who will say ‘you should not cut down trees’, but with sustainable forest management done here in Canada, 100 per cent of the woodlands harvested are regrown through natural regeneration and tree planting. So, anytime you can use sustainably harvested fibre from a Canadian forest to replace a fossil-based material, that’s a great trade-off. Trees are a renewable resource, you can replant and regrow.”
To learn more about Canada’s forest sector at forestryforthefuture.ca.
Advertising feature produced by Globe Content Studio with Forestry For The Future. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.