International Paper’s Ticonderoga mill has turned a waste disposal problem into a clean alternative to fossil fuel. Secondary sludge has historically consumed an inordinate amount of airspace in the facility’s on site landfill. The mill’s location in the Adirondack Park makes siting and permitting additional space extremely costly. The mill fielded a vacuum plate and frame press which could achieve 50% solids in dried sludge compared to 13 % solids achievable with a conventional belt press. The new material is easier to handle and has the same heat content as tree bark. The mill has successfully tested firing of the dried sludge in its multi-fuel power boiler and expects to go full scale in the near future. Full scale drying and firing of the sludge will increase the landfill’s useful life by over 300%.

Grown in the USA: Bioenergy and Biobased Products
Helena Chum, Chemistry for Bioenergy Systems Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Today’s bioenergy and biobased products will be discussed. Bioenergy ranks second in renewable US primary energy production after hydro. It ranks fourth worldwide after the fossil resources. It is embedded in our economy through forest and paper products, food production, and the management of our residues, wastes, and crop processing for energy.

Manufacture of forest products and pulp/paper uses residues and processing streams for heat and power, becoming 75% and 56%, respectively, energy self-sufficient. Agriculture residues, clean urban wood wastes, and landfill gas generate more than 1% of the electricity in this country. Ethanol from cornstarch and biodiesel from oil seeds provide 0.4% of transportation fuel and offset imported oil. Heating applications are over ¼ of the primary bioenergy. On average, bioenergy systems today are about 43% efficient. Research, development and demonstration could double this efficiency.

Biobased products broadly defined include building materials, pulp and paper products, and biomass-derived materials from starch, cellulose, rubber, lignin, and other components. About 300 billion pounds of these products are used in our economy. An equivalent amount of industrial organic chemicals are produced. Together, these 600 billion pounds of organic materials and chemicals are in our consumer products for home, office, leisure, transportation and communications. About 5% of our biobased materials find their way as industrial biobased products. This number could be increased fivefold by 2020 as both industrial chemicals and biobased materials markets expand. Increased use of biomass in the 21^st century will be discussed.

The Biofine Technology: Thermochemical Conversion of Cellulosic Biomass to Fuels and Chemicals
Stephen W. Fitzpatrick, Biofine/Biometics, 300 Bear Hill Road, Waltham, MA 02451-1019

The Biofine technology is based upon thermochemical degradation of cellulosic biomass to produce levulinic acid. Levulinic acid is a versatile chemical which can be used as a platform for the production of value-added products ranging from automotive and generator fuel substitutes to solvents, polymers and herbicides. Levulinic acid has, hitherto, been too expensive to be used as anything but a specialty chemical with a limited market. Using the Biofine process, levulinic acid can be produced at a cost range of $0.07 to $0.40 per pound depending on the scale of operation. The process can utilize a wide variety of renewable feedstocks such as agricultural residues and fast-rotation crops and recurring feedstocks such as municipal waste, paper sludge, waste paper, and waste wood. Biofine’s projections show that this technology, if widely adopted has the potential to replace well over half of the country’s imported oil needs with renewable feedstocks. In addition, use of renewable or recurring cellulosic feedstocks results in no net increase of carbon dioxide in the generation and use of chemicals and energy.

Biofine recently built a large-scale demonstration plant in New York State for production of levulinic acid from paper sludge and municipal waste. This plant, and our operating experience will be discussed. The presentation will also include a discussion of the process technology, feedstocks, products and markets. An analysis of production economics for large and small-scale commercial plants will also be presented.

Improved Cellulases for Bioethanol Production
Michael E. Himmel, William S. Adney, John O. Baker, Stephen R. Decker, Suzanne L. McCarter, John Sheehan and Todd B. Vinzant, Biotechnology Center for Fuels and Chemicals National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401

Ethanol is used today as an alternative fuel, a fuel extender, an oxygenate, and an octane enhancer. From just over 10 million gallons of production in 1979, the U.S. fuel ethanol industry has grown to more than 1.8 billion gallons of annual production. Most of this capacity is based on technology that converts corn starch to sugars, which are then fermented to ethanol. Throughout this time, the U.S. Department of Energy has invested in R&D technology that will allow the fuel ethanol industry to expand production using lignocellulosic feedstocks. However, unlike starch, cellulose is highly resistant to enzymatic degradation. It is now clear that cutting-edge biochemical technologies must be used to reduce the cost of cellulase activity delivered to the bioethanol process. Current estimates for cellulase usage center around $0.40 per gallon ethanol produced and these costs must be reduced ten-fold by 2015. Technically, this objective requires a 10-fold increase in enzyme specific activity or production efficiency or some combination thereof. Efforts recently made to reformulate known cellulase systems and to apply protein-engineering principles to the problem will be reviewed.

Vermont Gasification Project
John M. Irving, McNeil Generating Station, Burlington Electric Department, 585 Pine St., Burlington, VT 05401 [Phone: 802-865-7482]

The McNeil Station is a 50-mW wood fired electric generating station that began operating commercially in June 1984. It is a conventional grate boiler utilizing whole tree chips and mill residues

In 1994, the McNeil owners contracted with Future Energy Resources Corporation of Atlanta Georgia to have the Vermont Gasification Project built on the McNeil site. This project is based on the Indirectly heated gasification technology developed by Battelle Laboratories in Columbus Ohio. This process can converts biomass to a medium btu product gas comprised primarily of hydrogen, methane and carbon monoxide.

The product gas is currently used in the McNeil boiler. Ultimately, a gas turbine will be added to utilize the product gas from the gasifier. This technology has the potential to increase power plant efficiencies from 25% to 45% HHV in a high efficiency gas turbine cycle or fuel cell. The project is currently in the startup and shakedown stage.

Reusable and Magnetic Paper: Pathfinders to Advanced Cellulosics
Robert H. Marchessault, McGill University, Chemistry Department and Pulp & Paper Centre, 3420 University St., Montreal, Canada H3A 2A7

A major part of Xerox Corp. profits come from consumables. The rigid standards placed by Xerox on its paper and toner made these into quality materials that ushered in the office equipment revolution. Today’s new challenge is the reuse of the high quality paper rather than just the recovery of deinked fibers. To do this a "divorce" of toner and paper is needed, done "in office" as a reverse fusing operation. There are many ways to accomplish this but one process developed by researches at Xerox research of Canada will be described. Synthetic polymers of all kinds are part of the materials system of paper. They have made paper highly versatile and beautiful. However, struggling on the edge of the survival precipice, quality paper is fighting the electronic surrogate for paper: thin, light and as cleverly made as a watermark. Survival depends on novel paper and cellulose discoveries such as magnetic fibers and liquid crystalline microfibrils with their own intrinsic magnetic susceptibilities. Will field effects lead us to advanced cellulosics?

An Overview of The Modification of Lignin by Graft Copolymerization and The Uses of the Products
John J. Meister, Center for Forest Products Research, Inc., Seven Technology Center, 2008 Hendola Drive, NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110-4808

A graft copolymerization chemistry has been developed to modify lignin into the process polymers, plastics, and tire rubber filler needed by industry and consumers. Lignin is a polyaromatic binder, flame suppressant, and photostabilizer found in all woody plants. The over 20 million tons of lignin produced in the United States each year as a byproduct of paper manufacture or biomass fermentation is currently burned or landfilled. We show that solvated lignin, in the presence of a chloride salt and a hydroperoxide, can be grafted with ethene monomers to form water treatment chemicals for purifying water, dewatering agents to compact sewage sludge, chemicals for insulation and furniture foams, biodegradable and consumer plastics, binders for wood-plastic composites, and reinforcing fillers for tire rubber while replacing up to 37 million tons of acrylamide, AMPS, DMDAC, 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate, styrene, methylmethacrylate, acrylonitrile, vinyl chloride, and butadiene petrochemical monomers needed to make these materials. These lignin-containing replacement polymers are made in a reaction between a halide salt, chloride salt preferred; a hydroperoxide, hydrogen peroxide preferred; lignin; and the appropriate monomer. The reaction runs at room temperature and, for liquid and solid monomers, at ambient pressure. Yields depend on the monomer but can be made close to 100 percent by manipulation of the chloride to hydroperoxide ratio, the lignin content, and the monomer content of the reaction.

Laccase Enhancements in Lignocellulosic Biotechnologies
J.P. Nakas, Y.-Z. Lai, J.A. Perrotta, S. Omori, P. Lu, and S.W. Tanenbaum, SUNY-ESF, 1 Forestry Drive, Syracuse, NY 13210

Biotechnology transfers relating to renewable resources for the oxidative enzyme laccase include: lignin modifications via addition of ligands; mediator-assisted cellulose oxidations; bioremediation and decolorization of process wastestreams; enzyme pretreatment of lignocellulose hydrolysates for subsequent fermentations to solvents; modification of paperboard and paper properties; and the delignification of Kraft and other pulps. Involvement of such "green chemistry" stages in these fundamental forest industry practices could lead to energy savings, better environmental capabilities, and more efficient routes to value-added byproducts. Toward these ends our efforts have centered on the constitutive extracellular enzyme, laccase, obtained from an improved strain of Botrytis cinerea as well as with the inducible laccase isoforms from a novel field isolate of Trametes versicolor. Production, characterization, purification, and covalent chemical modification of these laccases for improved commercial attributes will be detailed. The formation of hybrid laccase-xylanase enzyme constructs and the identification of effective and lower cost mediators have also been explored. Applications of these materials for the removal of toxic phenols from effluents, for selective benzylic or allylic oxidations, and for the biobleaching of pulps will be demonstrated. (Research support provided by NYSERDA and ESPRA).

Accelerating the Commercialization of Biomas Energy in New York State
George Proakis, Consultant for the Syracuse Research Corporation and the New York State Technology Enterprise Corporation; Fenmore Consulting Services, PO Box 600, Boston MA 02123 [Phone: 617-437-9882 E-mail: george@fenmore.com]

The Current Situation - New York State imports 92% of its energy, at a cost of over $30 billion per year. Reduced agricultural activities have led to the loss of more than half of upstate farmland from productive agricultural pursuits, causing a decline in the health and stability of rural economies. Meanwhile, environmental impacts of energy generation remain a concern, especially those associated with the burning of coal for power generation.

The Opportunity - The Salix Consortium is a national leader in the development willow biomass crops. A near term use for willow biomass is co-firing at coal fired power plants. This homegrown fuel source will simultaneously create new agricultural jobs and tax revenues and reduce emissions of SO2 and NOx from power plants. In addition, willow biomass is a CO2 neutral fuel.

The Challenge - A significant obstacle to establishing a commercially viable, self-sustaining willow biomass industry is the initial capital investment required by landowners to establish the willow biomass crop. One approach to overcoming this challenge is the development of an incentive program to reduce the initial capital investment costs for landowners.

A Solution - This study quantifies the start-up investment costs, economic development impact, and environmental pollution reduction benefits associated with the creation of a biomass energy industry in New York State. The study recommends the creation of a state sponsored revolving loan fund that would be used by landowners to finance the cost of establishing willow biomass crops for a landowner. The fund would be completely paid back within seven years of its creation and place 10,000 acres of land into biomass production. Additionally, state tax revenue generated by this new rural based economic development activity would exceed the value of the loan fund over that period of time - thus more than doubling the state's investment required to create the fund. Given that the co-firing market for biomass could demand 80,000 acres of biomass production, reducing NYS demand for out-of-state coal by 1.6 million tons and create over 400 new jobs. Emissions of SOx and NOx, and CO2 into the New York airshed would be reduced as well.

Cellulose: Recent Progress in Structure and Morphology
Anatole Sarko, SUNY-ESF, 121 Jahn Laboratory, 1 Forestry Drive, Syracuse, NY 13210

Cellulose has been studied since Anselme Payen first described and named it in 1839. As new analytical tools were invented, each was applied, in turn, to its characterization– a testimonial to the continuing interest in cellulose and cellulosic materials.

Chemists soon determined the principal molecular characteristics of cellulose – its macromolecular nature, high molecular weight, and a linear, stereoregular structure of b-1,4-D-glucan. In the process, they helped establish the new science of polymer chemistry.

However, it was not until computers were harnessed to help in structural analysis that fine details of the solid-state structure of celluloses became known. Diffraction methods – using both x-rays and electron beams – coupled with computer-based molecular modeling emerged as the principal tools of study. As a result, we now understand, among other things, the differences between the crystal structures of cellulose polymorphs, the unusual "parallel-chain" characteristic of natural celluloses, and how the latter are converted to the "antiparallel-chain" cellulose II without loss of fibrous morphology. With continual refining of the diffraction-modeling methodology, the atomic-scale resolution of the structure of solid-state cellulose has reached a remarkable degree of precision.

Crystallographic studies remain of continued interest – in such areas as the bacterial synthesis of cellulose and the enzymatic degradation of cellulose.

Molecular Modeling of Cellulose Synthase
Inder M. Saxena and R. Malcolm Brown, Jr., Section of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712; Thomas Dandekar, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Postfach 102209, D-69012 Heidelberg, Germany

Cellulose is synthesized by cellulose synthase, a membrane protein that catalyzes the direct polymerization of glucose from the substrate UDP-glucose into a glucan chain in a processive manner. The mechanism of glycosyl transfer during cellulose biosynthesis takes place by an acid-base reaction that results in the inversion of configuration at the anomeric carbon. Since this type of reaction is catalyzed by amino acids with a reactive side-chain, sequence analysis using this criterion led to the identification of conserved aspartic acid residues and a QXXRW motif in cellulose synthase and other processive b-glycosyltransferases. The conserved residues in cellulose synthase are predicted to function in the catalytic reaction and they are present in a central globular region. The predicted structure of the catalytic region reveals the presence of a central elongated cavity between the conserved aspartic acid residues. The dimension of the cavity suggests that it can accommodate two UDP-glucose residues. The QXXRW motif is predicted to be involved in the binding of the growing glucan chain and residues in this motif are shown to be present in a region close to the central cavity. Possible events leading to the synthesis of a glucan chain in the cellulose synthase catalytic site will be discussed.

Enhancing Mechanical Pulping with Fungal Pretreatment in the Wood Yard
Gary M. Scott, Department of Paper Science and Engineering, SUNY-ESF, 313 Walters Hall, Syracuse, NY 13210

Biopulping is a technological breakthrough for the pulp and paper industry that would substantially reduce the electrical energy consumption during papermaking. Besides energy savings, the technology would reduce the environmental impact of pulping and produce paper with improved quality. In this process, industrial-sized wood chips are treated with a "natural" wood decay fungus for two weeks prior to pulping.

Biopulping is the treatment of wood chips and other lignocellulosic materials with lignin-degrading fungi prior to pulping. Ten years of industry-sponsored research has demonstrated the technical feasibility of the technology for mechanical pulping at a laboratory scale. Two 50-ton outdoor chip pile trials recently conducted at the USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) in Madison, Wisconsin have established the engineering and economical feasibility of the technology. After refining the control and the fungus-treated chips through a thermomechanical pulp (TMP) mill, the resulting pulps were made into papers on the pilot-scale paper machine at FPL. In addition to the 30% savings in electrical energy consumption during refining, improvements in the strength of the resulting paper were seen due to fungal pretreatment. Because of the stronger paper, we were able to substitute at least 5% kraft pulp in a blend of mechanical and kraft pulps. This recent work has clearly demonstrated that economic benefits can be achieved with biopulping technology through both the energy savings and substitution of the stronger biopulped TMP for more expensive kraft, while maintaining the paper quality.

Arizona Chemical: Converting Papermaking and Citrus Byproducts to Performance Chemicals and Materials
Kerry L. Thompson, Group Leader Innovative Technologies, Arizona Chemical, Savannah Technology Center, P.O. Box 2668, Savannah, GA 31402 [E-mail: Kerry.Thompson@ipaper.com]

Arizona Chemical, a company of International Paper, is a multimillion dollar global business that upgrades black liquor and turpentine, both byproducts of the kraft papermaking process and citrus limonene, a byproduct of the orange juice industry into value added products for many markets. In most of these markets, Arizona is the technical leader in terms of product quality and value, making it an outstanding example of a successful, world class company that is committed to renewable resources. This lecture will highlight Arizona’s business and describe several examples of Arizona’s technical and business achievements.

Willow Biomass Crops for Bioenergy and Bioproducts
E.H. White, L.P. Abrahamson, T.A. Volk and C.A. Nowak, SUNY-ESF; E. Neuhauser, Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation; E. Gray, C. Demeter and C. Lindsey, Antares; J. Peterson, New York State Research and Development Authority

Over two decades of research on woody crops in New York, combined with growing concern about environmental issues, prompted the formation of the Salix Consortium in 1994. Over 20 organizations have pooled their resources and talents to facilitate the development of willow biomass crops as a locally grown source of renewable energy and cellulose feedstock that produces multiple benefits for the Northeastern and Midwest regions of the United States. SUNY-ESF, and other Salix Consortium partners, continue to develop and expand a strong applied research program, which underpins the commercialization effort. Research focuses on both optimizing the production system, quantifying environmental benefits associated with willow biomass crops, and exploring both bioenergy and bioproducts markets.

Over 160 hectares of willow biomass crops have been established in western and central New York. Regional trials with between 6 and 40 different clones have been established in 7 different states. Annual planting stock production has reached almost 1.5 million cuttings. The introduction of the latest model of the Step planter from Sweden has increased planting efficiency by almost 400%. Harvesting equipment is scheduled to arrive late in 2000 with trials planned for the winter of 2000/2001. The first commercial harvests are scheduled for 2001/2002.

The near term use for the harvested willow biomass crops is co-firing with coal. The new owners of the Dunkirk power plant – NRG Inc. – will complete retrofits at the plant in early 2000. Initial tests at this plant with both residues and willow biomass are scheduled for the spring of 2000. Initial studies on use of willow feedstocks for pulp/paper, gasification, ethanol production and manure composting operations have all been positive. Continuing research gains in genetic tailoring of feedstock, crop yields, reductions in production costs, and improved quantification of environmental benefits, in combination with supportive state and national policies that value the environmental and rural development benefits, will be essential to making a commercial willow feedstock enterprise successful.

Dynamic Mechanical Behavior of Cellulosics and Cellulose Composites
Peter A. Zugenmaier, Clausthal University of Technology, Institute of Physical Chemistry, Arnold-Sommerfeld-Str. 4D-38678 Clausthal-Zellerfeld/Germany [Phone: +49 (0)5323 72-2372 Fax: +49 (0)5323 72-2584 E-mail: Zugenmaier@pc.tu-clausthal.de]

The thermal and viscoelastic properties of cellulose/polypropylene (PP) composites as well as Xylan/PP composites were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dynamic mechanical thermoanalysis (DMTA). Morphological aspects were available by using polarizing light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The cellulose fiber surfaces act as nucleating agents for PP, resulting in the formation of transcrystalline regions around the fibers. The DMTA spectra of the filler/PP composites revealed a significant increase in the stiffness and a remarkable decrease in damping values. The results verify an improvement of the mechanical properties.

For uniform and mixed cellulose derivatives a relationship was established between molecular parameters (substituents, degree of substitution) and dynamic mechanical and thermal properties (e.g. glass transition temperature) which allows to tailor cellulose derivatives for thermal and mechanical applications in a certain range.