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$1.4
MILLION GRANT PROMOTES BARK BASED ADHESIVES
The Department
of Energy (DOE) has selected Louisiana-Pacific and Ensyn Group Inc. to
receive an $1.4 million grant to develop bark based adhesives for use
in the production of structural building materials, including plywood.
The companies will be funded under President Bill Clinton's 1999 Bio-based
Product and Bioenergy Initiative designed to triple the U.S. production
of fuels and chemicals from biomass by 2010. The DOE grant will be matched
by funds from Louisiana-Pacific and Ensyn. "The Energy Department
is committed to advancing the commercial uses of biomass," said Energy
Secretary Bill Richardson. "Bio-based products can replace petroleum
in chemicals and fuels instead of being put to some relatively low value
use or disposed of. Biomass has the potential to help reduce our dependence
on imported oil if we can use it in place of petroleum in chemicals and
fuels."
"Bark
holds great promise as a raw material for producing a less expensive substitute
to the petroleum based adhesives traditionally used in building products,"
said Robert Graham, Ensyn president and CEO. Warren Easley, Louisiana-Pacific's
vice president of Technology and Quality, added, "Ensyn is clearly
a leader in demonstrating the commercial feasibility and cost-effectiveness
of extracting chemicals found naturally in wood and using them to produce
quality products. There is a wide array of potential benefits to using
bark based adhesives, which range from pollution reduction to keeping
the cost of building products down for our customers. We are very excited
about teaming up our Advanced Technology Center with Ensyn and two of
our resin suppliers to develop the full potential of this promising new
technology."
Clip from:
ENS - Portland, Oregon, August 11, 2000
SOY-BASED
ADHESIVE AIDS U.S. ENVIRONMENT, MILLS
WASHINGTON
- Mike Lipke had grown increasingly frustrated in his search for the holy
grail of wood adhesives.
An Oregon
lumber mill where he worked as a general manager was searching for a glue
to bond two pieces of wet wood that would not only be more environmentally
friendly but create a more dependable product and boost the company's
bottom line.
After experimenting
with new formulas for six months in the Hampton Lumber Mills research
lab, Lipke struck gold.
He was
approached by the industry-funded United Soybean Board, which looks for
new uses for soybeans, with an adhesive that allowed him to "finger-joint,"
or interlock, two blocks of wood. Lipke jumped at the chance.
It "gives
us a competitive advantage because raw material is the single biggest
cost for our company, 80 percent, so that is why the impact is so significant.
It adds up fast," he said.
Once Hampton
Lumber Mills was convinced the adhesive worked, it wasted little time
committing to the new technology, spending $2.5 million to build a plant
devoted to the wet wood adhesive. It is already paying big dividends.
Lipke said his mill can use about 1 percent more of a tree's wood than
with existing technology, translating into a saving of about $200 per
tree.
ADHESIVE
MAY HELP TRIM SURPLUS CROP
The adhesive,
a mixture of soybeans and petroleum, was first introduced in 1997 and
approved for horizontal uses ranging from windows to doors and roof supports
last December.
The soybean
board expects the adhesive to consume 23 million bushels of soybeans annually
by 2005, soaring to 150 million bushels a year once it is approved for
use with other types of wood such as plywood, the group said.
That is
good news for American farmers, who have watched soybean prices droop
with ever-larger harvests in recent years. The U.S. Agriculture Department
predicts they will harvest a record 2.94 billion bushels of soybeans this
year. Soybeans have long been used as a key ingredient in cooking oils,
margarine, salad dressings, snack foods, coffee creamer, tofu and animal
feeds.
In addition
to the adhesive, scientists have begun to develop industrial uses for
soybeans such as new coatings, lubricants, plastics and hydraulic fluids,
all of which could help trim the number of soybeans that sit idle each
year.
The soybean
adhesive has several advantages that proponents say drastically expand
the market opportunities for the crop.
A MORE
SECURE BOND
Unlike
petroleum adhesives that dilute when applied to wet wood, the soybean-based
adhesive forms a stronger, more secure bond that reduces twisting in the
finger-joint of the wood.
Jerry Scheid,
who did research for the soybean project with Omni-Tech International
in Oregon, said such a bond would create more stable joints, saving home
builders hundreds of dollars in extra labor and material needed to replace
defects.
The soy
adhesive also is being applauded by environmental organizations, who welcome
an alternative to other petroleum-based adhesives that, while cheaper
to produce, are believed to contribute to ozone depletion and smog.
"It's
good to see an alternative that has the potential to reduce health and
environmental risks found in petroleum-based adhesives that we know expose
people to dangerous chemicals," said Ed Hopkins, an official with
the Sierra Club.
Hampton
is the only U.S. mill using the adhesive in finger-joints but four other
mills in North America are testing the adhesive. Many others have been
reluctant to switch to the adhesive because their equipment is not set
to handle wet wood. Others are hesitant to embrace it because it is still
new, even though it has proven successful in early testing.
Once mills
discover the long-term economic and environmental advantages of the adhesive,
more will adopt the new technology, Scheid predicted. "It's basically
education," he said. "With a new adhesive that will allow them
to increase efficiency and utilization of the tree, they are going to
start using it."
Clip from:
Reuters July 27, 2000
By: Christopher Doering
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