Al Ward has a message for those who think the pulp industry is a 19th century dinosaur, destined to be obliterated in the digital age. Think again, he says. When the President of Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries looks out a decade or two, he sees an industry that’s likely to be utterly transformed, producing an array of high-value products from bioenergy to biochemicals.
In fact, pulp mills will no longer be called pulp mills, he says. They’ll be known as biorefineries — the forest products industry’s equivalent of petroleum refineries. And while mills like Al-Pac’s 650,000-tonne-per-year operation 200 kilometres northeast of Edmonton will still churn out pulp as a core product, today’s low profit margins will be boosted by new products such as biodiesel and biomethanol.
… More at: www.edmontonjournal.com/technology/Lamphier+From+pulp+mill+biorefinery/5314890/story.html
Keywords: nanotechnology, kraft pulp, bioenergy, biomethanol, black liquor, nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC)
Source
Edmonton Journal, 2011-08-26.
Supplier
Alberta Innovates – Technology Futures (AITF)
Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries
Mitsubishi Corp.
Oji Paper Co.,Ltd.
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