Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

The project is to collaborate with AV Nackawic, and FPInnovations - Paprican, to develop the technologies: i) to optimize the pre-hydrolysis process, ii) to separate/concentrate/purify hemicellulose from the pre-hydrolysis liquor of the pre-hydrolysis kraft-based dissolving pulp production process, and, iii) to convert the hemicellulose to value-added products such as furfural-based polymer resins for wood products. The proposed research falls into the general area of forestry bio-refinery. Pulp and paper is the largest manufacturing industry in Canada and is particularly important to the economy of Atlantic Canada, where the forest industry represents approximately $2.6 billion in real GDP and over 25,000 primary jobs. The project is not only of direct relevance to AV Nackawic, but also to the traditional kraft pulping process where the integrated pulp and paper bio-refinery concept has gained world wide attention. The project objectives/deliverables include: 1) to determine the development of acetic acid and uronic acid formation as well as total pH during pre-hydrolysis of birch-, aspen-, and maple-chips 2) to investigate the effect of adding acetic acid to the pre-hydrolysis stage of birch-, aspen-, and maple-chips and to industrial chip mixtures of the species 3) to develop effective/economic technologies to separate/concentrate the dissolved hemicellulose in the pre-hydrolysis liquor which allows its effective/economic down-stream processing 4) to convert the hemicellulose obtained from the pre-hydrolysis liquor to value-added products such as furfural-based polymer resins for wood products.