It's a rather ubiquitous polymer that keeps trees straight and rigid as they tower in the sky but lignin also has the distinction of giving the forestry industry major headaches when it's time to process the wood into pulp.
Now a University of British Columbia researcher has genetically modified poplars to make lignin easier to break down during processing while not affecting the strength of the trees.
It's a huge leap in terms of environmental benefits and commercial viability for the industry, according to UBC wood science professor Shawn Mansfield.
"These new technologies, while controversial, have a potential to really leave our pristine, native forests alone and have dedicated forests for applications that don't cause as many environmental issues," said Mansfield, who spent a decade working on this project with researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Michigan State University.
The forestry industries in the United States and Europe have made efforts to isolate the lignin polymer and use it to make sugars, biofuels or ethanol.
Mansfield and his fellow researchers took a different approach, modifying the poplar's genes to make the lignin easier to break down during processing without affecting the plant's strength.
Mansfield said the genetically engineered trees require fewer chemicals during processing while less power is consumed from machinery.
"It's really important to think about the environmental footprint that we're placing on society," he said, adding that the trees were also designed to sprout back up once they're chopped down. "Society has to be ready to accept trees or plants designed for [these] applications."
Mansfield said he's confident the plants are ripe for commercial use, especially since the team chose to modify poplar trees that can be grown virtually anywhere in Canada.
UBC wood science professor David Cohen, who did not work on the project, said companies that have attempted to extract lignin for use in other products have not been able to find an economically practical way of doing so.
He said Mansfield's trees have tremendous commercial viability, but the reluctance of Canadians to accept the virtues of genetically modified organisms (GMO) poses a major challenge.
"There are people who feel really strongly it is against their religion to use GMOs and there's no amount of science, there's no amount of logic that's going to change their minds," Cohen said.
"In terms of 10 years from now, having genetically modified forests in Canada, I would bet against that pretty heavily."
Nigel Protter, executive director of the B.C. Sustainable Energy Association, said he understands fears that the introduction of this species could have unexpected consequences on the environment.
"I would certainly like to see this kind of research continue, but reasonably, carefully, responsibly," he said, adding the BCSEA hasn't taken an official position on genetically engineered trees.
"We need more bullets in our gun to solve the climate change problem, so we can't dismiss efforts like this even though they might appear high-risk — and I'm not saying it is high-risk."
