Grant: Strategic Projects - Group

Canada has implemented a federal mandate of 5% ethanol blending by 2010. The current ethanol production uses sugars and starches from food crops which competes for land with food production and generates more life-cycle GHG emissions. Second-generation liquid biofuels made from lignocellulose biomass including agricultural residues, forestry waste, grasses and trees biomass can be a sustainable alternative to fossil oil. Lignocellulose biomass is particularly important to Canada and the forest industry in Canada has over a century of experience in processing wood for lumber and for pulp and paper products.Plants have developed a complex protective cell wall architecture to counteract microbial attack in nature. This is typically recalcitrant to direct enzyme activity, and presents the major barrier in efficient hydrolysis of cellulose. As a result, the pretreatment of biomass for subsequent cellulose hydrolysis become a complex and costly process. This proposed project aims to make bioethanol production an economical option for forest and agricultural sectors by developing a cost-effective pretreatment technology based bio-mechanical pulping process and by developing a novel green technology for making lignin byproducts into value-added biochemicals, generating extra revenues.This research will be carried out by professors from Lakehead University, University of New Brunswick, and University of Toronto in collaboration with Irving Paper and NewPage Port Hawkesburry Ltd. It is anticipated that given the existing infrastructure and expertise in mechanical pulping processes at Canadian pulp mills, the technology developed will be easier to commercialize and benefit the forest industry in Canada in the near term. This project will also train fourteen HQP's for the industry.