Cutting-edge research on chemicals and materials derived from trees has so far been at the developmental stage, but industry players say one technology is now ready to be commercially produced.
“In the case of things like tissue paper, we're at two minutes from commercial,” said Pierre Lapointe, CEO of FPInnovations, a research organization with offices in Quebec, Vancouver and Edmonton.
FPInnovations recently partnered with Kruger Inc. to build a cellulose filament plant. Cellulose filament – a nanoscale material (see sidebar) developed by FPInnovations – can be used to make tissues and other paper products stronger and softer. The material produced at the plant will be sold to other pulp and paper companies.
A newly created company will go beyond pulp and paper to try to develop FPInnovations' technologies for use in cars, planes and chemicals.
Performance BioFilaments is a joint venture between Resolute Forest Products (TSX:RFP) and Mercer International (TSX:MRI.U).
“The technology is very sound, but if it's not commercially viable, then it's only going to remain at the development stage,” said Gurminder Minhas, the company's managing director.
“The challenge is finding the right partners and right applications for this technology so we can have a certain amount of applications that are commercially very successful.”
Future commercialization of more products could be a game-changer for Canada's pulp and paper industry, which has been struggling with increased competition from South American hardwood pulp and declining demand for writing paper and newsprint.
In the future, pulp mills could be used to provide wood fibre components for polymer and composite products, which could replace oil-based plastics.
“Right now it can be used as part of [conventional] plastic,” Minhas said.
“But what I can envision is that cellulose filaments will be one component of a composite material. … There is bio-plastic being developed by other companies.”
For instance, the polyurethane foam now used in car seats could be replaced with a lighter, tree-based product.
The technology could also be used as a thickening agent in paint or food or added to fracking fluid.
But Minhas said those applications are still years away. He added that his company's goal is to create superior products, not just develop alternatives to oil-based products.
“The renewable component is definitely good to have, but we're not only chasing after non-renewable applications,” he said. “We're still focused on the overall performance of this model and expanding the performance and the price.”
Now that FPInnovations has succeeded in bringing its cellulose filament technology to production, Lapointe said that over the next three years the organization will be focused on developing polymers and composite materials.
Cellulose filaments are measured in nanometres.
Gurminder Minhas, managing director of Performance BioFilaments, describes the size of a cellulose filament this way:
“A human hair is 100,000 nanometres, and cellulose filaments are in the range of 20 to 50 nanometres.”
