Location: Nutrition, Food Safety/Quality
Project Number: 0500-00090-001-012-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jul 1, 2024
End Date: Jun 30, 2027
Objective:
Diversifying applications and products within the forest products industry is critical to increasing economic resilience in forest-based communities across the nation. Along with this need, increasing societal and legislative focus is being placed on the end of life (EOL) for materials to reduce environmental impact. Developing markets and EOL uses for novel and emerging forest products requires advancing technical concepts and applications along the research, development and commercialization lifecycle. De-risking these technologies reduces the barriers of attracting companies for technology transfer and adoption, as well as investment for startup businesses. This cooperative agreement contains four projects focused on novel forest products with commercial relevance addressing multiple industries and end of life applications. To ensure industrial relevance, eight industrial cooperators are involved in the proposed projects, with the majority having operations in Maine. The expected outcomes and deliverables of the projects are provided in the following paragraphs. Detailed project details are provided in the Cooperative Agreement proposal to be submitted to USDA/ARS in combination with the budget details.
Approach:
Project 1: CNFs dried by two different methodologies will be used. Freeze dried CNF and CNF dried via contact dewatering employing cationic calcium carbonate followed by PCC dissolution via acidic water addition during rehydration will be employed as the second methodology. A wide array of rehydration process variables will be evaluated including controlling the rate of water re-addition, temperature, extent and means of applying shear, sonication etc. We will then use a dynamic foam analyzer to evaluate foamability, foam volume stability, bubble size and size distribution. Optimization will include solids content, CNF/TMP/wood flour content, surfactant content and type. The prepared wet foams will be poured into molds designed to the final shape of prototypes and allowed to drain. A microwave foaming technique can be used to foam the slurry in a closed mold. Finally, a machine learning approach based on data from Morfi Analyzer will be used to evaluate re-dispersion efficiency.
Project 2: Our approach is adding a low value starch base layer to the paper prior to coating with PVOH. CNFs can add functionality to the PVOH by serving as the vehicle to hold the PVOH thus preventing it from soaking through the paper while extending the efficacy of the PVOH by forming a thicker barrier. Additionally, the PVOH enables the mechanical grade CNFs to become a higher barrier. This results in a system that is close to sustainable in terms of raw materials, economical, and has more cellulose fiber mass with the potential to be recycled in a paper recycling system. To develop this system, the team at FPL and UMaine will perform laboratory scale preparation of formulations and coating methods to make and test samples. Laboratory scale formulations and processes that meet the target OTR values will be down selected to undergo pilot coating trials at UMaine’s Process Development Center.
Project 3: Soy protein isolate (SPI) will be dispersed in acetic acid solution and CNF slurry with different degrees of fineness (60, 70, 80, 90%) and glycerol will be mixed with the SPI dispersion. The mixture is cooled down to self-assemble to a hydrogel. Which will be stretched for orientation. In the next step, the characterization and assessment of the optical, barrier, and mechanical properties of the CNF-SPI based PDRC composites will be done. Then the cooling capacity testing of CNF-SPI based PDRC composite will be evaluated.
Project 4: The first task will be the investigation of the manufacturing parameters needed for fiberboard products made with recycled wood-based building materials through prototype Manufacturing and testing. In the next task, we will manufacture biochar products using reclaimed wood fiber insulated panels (WIPs) and test their performance as soil amendment and PFAS sorbent. Then, techno-economic, socio-economic, and environmental assessments of remanufactured wood products through circular economy practices will be performed. This framework is designed to systematically investigate the potential benefits and hurdles of using recycled wood for WFI and biochar production
