Grant: Engage Plus Grants Program

Many forestry companies generate large amounts of bark residues. These residues are currently combusted in bark boilers to generate low value steam. The main objective of the proposed research is to investigate the conversion of bark into a high value liquid that could substitute phenol derived from fossil petroleum resources in phenol-formaldehyde resins (a main application of these resins is the manufacture of plywood). This would provide significant economic and environmental benefits.The Institute for Chemicals and Fuels from Alternative Resources (ICFAR) has developed a process for the fractional condensation of pyrolytic vapors. It produces two liquids: an aqueous condensate and a dry, low acidity bio-oil that should be ideal for phenol substitution in phenol-formaldehyde resins. An Engage grant with Domtar has shown the ICFAR pyrolysis technology can be applied to produce a dry bio-oil from softwood bark that can be substituted for 65% of phenol in phenol-formaldehyde resins. In order to minimize external energy consumption during the pyrolysis process, autothermal operating conditions were used by addingcontrolled amounts of air into the pyrolysis reactor.This Engage Plus project will adapt this technology to hardwood barks. The resin preparation and curing conditions will be further optimized for improved mechanical properties. The pyrolysis reactor will be modified to allow for continuous bio-char/ash removal with a cyclone: this should improve the dry bio-oil yield and provide pure bio-char samples that Domtar will use for a proprietary application.