Volume 4 Issue 4

The forest products industry in North America is increasingly losing its share in its domestic markets. The pressure of low cost manufacturing combined with a slowing economy has painfully caused many mills to close and many workers to lose their jobs in recent years. We ask ourselves whether the forest products industry will be able to survive these gloomy times and what, if any are the factors that would drive the future of the forest products industry. Opening our minds to global markets beyond domestic consumption, targeting products towards changing demographic structure and resulting change in consumer tastes, developing and marketing products with the environmental conscious consumer in mind, product innovations, efficient management of the supply chain, and trade practices and policies will be some of the marketing drivers in the forest products industry in the new era.

The effects of several non-ionic commercial surfactants and their dosage on soda pulping and ECF bleaching of soda and soda-surfactant pulps of bagasse were investigated. The properties of bleachable pulps obtained with conventional soda and with soda-surfactants were studied and compared. The results showed application of surfactants during the soda pulping of bagasse decreased kappa number and improved the yield and brightness of resulting pulp. Using the surfactants reduced alkali consumption during pulping. The bleaching experiments showed that the pulps obtained with the three types of applied surfactants namely, ELA-2, FAE-20, and PEG1000 could be easily bleached with D0ED1 or D0EpD1 sequences. The addition of most used surfactants in soda pulping of bagasse led to higher brightness in comparison to reference pulp with the same bleaching sequence. Strength properties of bleached pulps obtained with surfactants were higher than the pulp obtained with conventional soda pulping.

Chemical modification of hardwood sawdust from ash-tree species was carried out with a solution of maleic anhydride in acetone. Wood polymers, lignin, and cellulose were isolated from the wood sawdust and modified by the same method. Samples were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), providing evidence that maleic anhydride esterifies the free hydroxyl groups of the wood polymer components. Composites comprising chemically modified wood sawdust and wood polymers (cellulose, lignin)-as variable weight percentages-, and poly (vinyl chloride) were obtained and further characterized by using FTIR spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The thermal behavior of composites was investigated by using the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). In all cases, thermal properties were affected by fillers addition.

Combination of lignin matrices (including those modified with silicon oligomers or quaternary ammonium compounds) and such inorganic building blocks as copper and manganese cations (Cu2+, Mn2+) made it possible to synthesize novel hybrid organic-inorganic materials. The synthesized hybrid materials were characterized with significantly increased (2-9 times) values of specific surface area in comparison with those for non-modified and Si-modified precursor matrices. The Cu2+-containing hybrid materials differed by enhanced sorption capacity towards proteins and bacteria.

This paper describes the preparation of chemically modified oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) with hydroxamic acid functional group and its use for the sorption of Cu(II) from aqueous solution. OPEFB was grafted with poly(methylacrylate) (PMA), using H2O2/Fe2+ as initiator. The PMA grafted OPEFB (PMA-OPEFB) was treated with hydroxylammonium chloride in alkaline medium to produce hydroxamic acid grafted fiber (PHA-OPEFB). The FTIR spectrum of OPEFB grafted with PMA showed an intense absorption band at 1734 cm-1 which is attributed to C=O vibration in the grafted ester. After hydroxylamine treatment, the intensity of absorption band at 1734 cm-1 decreased and new bands appeared at the 1640 cm-1 related to C=O vibration in hydroxamic acid and at the 1568 cm-1 related to the N-H amide. Sorption of Cu(II) by PHA-OPEFB was effective over a pH range of 4 to 6. The sorption followed the Langmuir model with maximum capacities of 74.1 mg g-1 at 25 °C. The sorption process was exothermic, as shown by the negative value of enthalpy change, DH°. The free energy change (DG°) for the sorption was negative, showing that the sorption process was spontaneous. A kinetic study showed that the Cu(II) sorption followed a second order kinetic model.

Bio-oil produced from fast pyrolysis of biomass contains various levels of acetic and formic acids derived from breakdown of cellulose and hemi-cellulose components. Removal of these organic acids from bio-oil was investigated for use as industrial chemicals as well as to improve the quality of recovered bio-oil as fuel in various applications. Calcium oxide and a quaternary ammonium anion-exchange resin were used to form acid salts of the organic acids, which were then separated, and the organic acids were generated by reacting with sulfuric acid. Both methods were found to be effective in limited ways and various difficulties encountered in this approach are discussed.

This study concerns the implementation and performance evaluation of fibrous composites in sterile filtration of wine. Conditions of preparation were established having in view that the separation of particulate contaminants from liquids by depth filtration is occurring by mechanical entrapment into structural pores and by electrokinetic adsorption, and both retention mechanisms are influenced by various factors. Functional characteristics and behaviour of the filtering composite in industrial filtration of wine were evaluated. It was found that the effectiveness with which micro-organisms were retained was substantially improved by a porous structure characterized by small pores, and respectively by high resistance to air filtration, as well as by a higher content of cationic charges in the system.

Lean Manufacturing has helped several industries to achieve operational and manufacturing excellence by increasing productivity and enhancing quality, while reducing waste and costs. However, the wood industry has been historically slow in adopting this philosophy and its many tools. In times when overseas competition has taken big portions of the traditional market share for U.S based wood industries, it has become important that companies start to take actions in order to regain competitiveness. In this sense, Lean Manufacturing could provide a competitive advantage. Main findings of this project includes high percentages of Lean Manufacturing implementation among companies from the Wood Component Manufacturing Association, substantial differences in the tools implemented by companies on an early vs. extensive Lean Manufacturing implementation stage, as well as identification of main reasons and advantages derived from its implementation, and how Lean Manufacturing is rated among these companies. Findings lead to the conclusions that many companies are pursuing cost savings strategies without implementing Lean Manufacturing. Training and education on Lean Manufacturing, and well implemented Lean Manufacturing programs would help members of the Wood Component Manufacturing Association to regain competitiveness and achieve substantial cost reductions.

Cotton linters were hydrolyzed with different concentrations of HCl (2.5-15%) to prepare microcrystalline cellulose. Infrared spectroscopy and thermal analysis were used to follow the effect of hydrolysis on the molecular structure of the produced microcrystalline cellulose. The loss in weight and the degree of polymerization of the produced hydrolyzed cotton linters were determined. Scanning electron microscope images and x-ray diffraction were also studied for more information about the crystallinity, fiber length, particle size, and shape of the produced microcrystalline cellulose. Water retention value and water absorption were estimated for the hydrolyzed cotton linters to explain the effect of hydrolysis on the amorphous and crystalline part of the hydrolyzed cotton linters. The obtained results showed that the crystallinity index of the hydrolyzed cotton increased by increasing acid concentration and then began to decrease at 15% HCl. Kinetic energy (calculated from thermogravimetric curves) of the hydrolyzed cellulose was higher than that of the untreated cotton linters, and at high acid concentration this activation energy began to decrease.

Biotechnological processes represent a challenge in the control field, due to their high nonlinearity. In particular, continuous alcoholic fermentation from Zymomonas mobilis (Z.m) presents a significant challenge. This bioprocess has high ethanol performance, but it exhibits an oscillatory behavior in process variables due to the influence of inhibition dynamics (rate of ethanol concentration) over biomass, substrate, and product concentrations. In this work a new solution for control of biotechnological variables in the fermentation process is proposed, based on numerical methods and linear algebra. In addition, an improvement to a previously reported state estimator, based on particle filtering techniques, is used in the control loop. The feasibility estimator and its performance are demonstrated in the proposed control loop. This methodology makes it possible to develop a controller design through the use of dynamic analysis with a tested biomass estimator in Z.m and without the use of complex calculations.