Research Goals and Projects

Project Leader:
Skog, Kenneth E.

Overview:
FPL research is enhanced by the ability of scientists to get professional assistance with designing experiments, analyzing data, mathematical modeling, and summarizing experimental results in tables and graphical displays. Statisticians are integral parts of the research teams, as they help identify research objectives, decide on the best research approach, and design experiments that effectively and efficiently allow testing of research hypotheses. Support of technology transfer is also provided in the form of user-friendly computer programs that provide new capabilities for scientists.

Project Leader:
Skog, Kenneth E.

Overview:
Researchers are focusing on the long-range economic modeling of the U.S. forest products sector in the context of structural changes, policy shifts, and global trade. This includes long-range modeling of supply, demand, production and capacity trends by U.S. region, as well as other model development research, such as modeling market impacts of expanded fuel treatment programs in the western United States.

Improving understanding about the effect of production trends and technology changes in solid wood, composites, and end-use industries on product and wood needs.

To support this focus area, researchers maintain detailed capacity and production statistics for softwood lumber and panel mills in the United States and Canada and assess how drivers of wood supply and product demand are causing the observed trends in production and technology. In addition, the prospects for new markets are assessed for individual new products by identifying possible use markets and the size of those markets. Researchers collaborate with industry associations and others to conduct detailed surveys of wood use and prepare reports that display use rates and analyze how the use of different products is changing.

Project Leader:
Skog, Kenneth E.

Overview:
Developing Forest Service and industry strategic plans requires basic national-level information about forest products and the timber they use. Researchers provide readily available, consistent information and statistics on timber, wood, and fiber products production, trade, consumption, and prices. The data serve as a uniform source for analysts in government, industry, and universities.

Project Leader:
Skog, Kenneth E.

Overview:
FPL researchers develop new technologies for converting timber into new or improved wood products that can extend timber supplies, reduce processing costs, and provide consumers with better products. However, the wood products industry will not make use of a new technology without adequate assessment of its commercial viability. Our scientists can help make the adoption of new technologies more desirable by providing economic feasibility analysis and identify pathways for adoption, including assessing needs for communities seeking business development and analysis of competitive products.

Project Leader:
Skog, Kenneth E.

Overview:
Continue the evaluation of the forest sector role in sustainable management of natural systems, which includes estimating and analyzing indicators of sustainability of forest management, estimating and analyzing carbon storage in wood and paper products in support of global change research, and evaluating market and product opportunities to use small diameter timber in the West to mitigate fire risk.

Project Leader:
Rudie, Alan W.

Overview:
Research in this area includes investigating the use of invasive species and small-diameter trees from thinning operations for wood pulp and paper products and developing environmentally preferable pulping and bleaching processes.

Project Leader:
Illman, Barbara L.

Overview:
Underutilized wood from overstocked forest stands could be made into fuels, chemicals, and polymers through appropriate pretreatment and bioconversion. Our research is working to develop fundamental knowledge to enable novel technologies for the economic bioconversion of wood to such useful products.

Researchers are studying pretreatment, saccharification, and fermentation technologies, which can be integrated into traditional fiber processing to generate a mixture of fuels, chemicals, and biomaterials. In one example of this research, scientists are working to understand, modify, and adapt xylose-fermenting yeasts for the production of fuels and chemicals. Xylose is the major component of hardwood hemicelluloses, and its utilization is essential to the economics of the saccharification/fermentation process for bioconversion of wood waste. If the technology for fermenting xylose and other hemicellulosic sugars is practicable, wood-derived ethanol could provide a significant fraction of our Nation's transportation fuel needs from renewable resources in an environmentally sound manner.

Gasification is also being studied as a method of bioconversion, and is an attractive option because it could potentially be used to convert low-grade biomass into fuels and chemicals on-site, eliminating the expense of handling and transporting the bulky woody materials. However, the economic feasibility of gasification needs to be further studied.

Project Leader:
Illman, Barbara L.

Overview:
The use of enzymes is important to meet the public's demands for environmentally benign technologies. Enzymes catalyze reactions under conditions that are environmentally less severe than similar chemical processes. Researchers study the enzymatic and microbial modification of wood and fiber surfaces that provide great potential in developing new products. Specific removal or modification of components of wood may be useful in producing new products; such as chemicals or fuels, heavy metal or nutrient adsorbants, or replacements of stringent chemicals in industrial processes.

Researchers focus on discovery and use of microorganisms, enzymes and biomimics to treat virgin fibers, recycled fibers, and wood residues. Enzymes or processes possessing the capacity to release lignin and chromophores from pulps are sought, along with enzymes that might increase the strength of paper made from lower grade residuals and pulp. The pulp and paper industry already uses enzymes for pulp bleaching and removing inks and contaminants from recycled fibers. Further research is being conducted using proteins that may be useful in restoring flexibility or bonding properties to recycled fibers, which could expand the use of recycled fibers and conserve timber while providing the public with material goods. Enzyme pretreatment of biomass will be indispensable for the new forest biorefinery initiatives and hold promise for the value prior to pulping process (VPP). An important consideration in this research, is ensuring that the use of enzymes can fit in with existing industry technologies to increase their acceptance and use.