(580c) Integrated Forest Biorefineries: Production Platforms and Products

Due to the increasing off-shore competition, global movement and incentives for green fuels and chemicals, the North American pulp and paper industry needs to create additional revenues and diversify their products and markets to remain competitive. To achieve this, the pulp and paper mills have to evolve into Integrated Forest Biorefineries (IFBR). This presentation will provide an overview of the IFBR production platforms and research needs in the area of: 1) adding value prior to pulping; and 2) new values from residuals and spent liquors. Products derived from the IFBR platforms employing both biochemical and thermochemical conversion processes as well as models of integrated technological schemes for the complex utilization of forest biomass for biofuels, biochemicals and market pulp will be discussed. The main technological challenges that need to be overcome to maximize the IFBR value through integration of processing steps and utilization of waste streams will be summarized.