Progress 07/31/02 to 07/30/07
Outputs
A major need of the Forest Service is to develop profitable markets for the small diameter trees that need to be removed from overgrown forests to mitigate the risk of catastrophic forest fires. Much of this wood is from suppressed growth trees that can be quite old but still very small diameter and not suitable for use in conventional sawmills. This problem area evaluated small diameter, suppressed growth trees for the production of lumber and paper products. The very tight growth rings of suppressed growth trees provide a level of wood uniformity rarely achieved in canopy trees. Previous research had shown that the uniform growth rings produce high quality paper fiber using both the kraft process and thermomechanical pulping (TMP) process. Using this data, a trial was arranged with Ponderay Newsprint Corporation, a TMP newsprint mill in Usk, WA. The trial was conducted this year with assistance from the Ponderay Valley Fiber Incorporated (PVF) as well as Ponderay
Newsprint Corporation (PNC). The Colville National Forest provided a study plot for thinning, and the Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station provided support in characterizing the thinning project. All trees were delivered to PVF where they were sorted. Timber with a diameter over 4.1 inches was sawn to produce 2 X 4 lumber. Saw mill residuals and reject lumber were provided to PNC where they were blended with regular chips to produce newsprint. Both companies were satisfied with the trial outcome, producing salable 2 X 4s from much of the small diameter thinnings, and newsprint from what could not be used in the saw mill. Research projects on the use of budworm killed Jack Pine in papermaking, and the effect of plantation density on kraft pulp fiber properties was also completed and published this fiscal year. Due to the merger of the research work unit with RWU 4709, this problem area is being closed. Research on use of small diameter and underutilized trees in paper
products will continue as problem area 3 of the new merged work units.
Impacts
The project has demonstrated that small diameter suppressed growth trees contain wood suitable for both small dimension lumber and paper fiber production. The results of this research will help sawmills justify the investment to install new equipment capable of handling the small diameter trees and papermills to increase their use of this readily available wood supply. This should improve the value of small diameter trees and mitigate the cost of fuels reduction in the National Forests.
Publications
- Klungness, John H.; Gleisner, Roland; Mann, Doreen; Scallon, Karen L.; Zhu, J.Y.; Horn, Eric G.; Edwards, Louis L. 2006. Evaluation of forest thinning materials for TMP production. Tappi Journal. 5(4): 17-22.
- Zhu, J.Y.; Myers, Gary C. 2006. Kraft pulp from budworm-infested jack pine. Holzforschung. 60: 383-388.
- Zhu, J.Y.; Myers, G.C. 2006. Effect of plantation density on kraft pulp production from red pine (Pinus resinosa Ait.). Journal of Pulp and Paper Science. 32(3): 7 pp.
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Progress 10/01/04 to 09/30/05
Outputs
Research in this problem not only focuses on the ongoing fundamental understanding of the fiber resources from suppressed growth small-diameter trees and their possible effect on pulp and paper production, but also shifts to industrial demonstration of utilization of the fiber derived from these trees for newsprint production. With the shortage of good fiber resources for paper production and public awareness of forest fires, the pulp and paper industry is willing to take nontraditional fiber resources, such as forest thinning materials, in pulp production as we found in dealing with the industry. Therefore, pulp and paper production is one of the logical exits for the very large amount of forest thinning materials from the national forests, especially in the U.S. mountainous West region. Laboratory fundamental studies using both Silviscan analysis and micro-imaging analysis indicate that suppressed growth environment produces wood tracheids with less distinction
between earlywood and latewood in terms of cell wall thickness, i.e., the suppressed growth trees are more uniform. Therefore, suppressed growth trees may be more suitable for thermomechanical pulp (TMP) production by avoiding over-refining the earlywood (thin wall tracheids). We also assembled a team consisting of a university (the University of Idaho), a newsprint mill, an integrated saw mill, and other Forest Service organizations (Colville National Forest, WA, Pacific Northwest Research Station) to conduct a mill demonstration of using forest thinning materials from national forests for newsprint (TMP) production. Due to warm weather conditions last winter the mill trial was delayed to this coming winter. The delay of the mill trial provided us more time to conduct careful study to verify our hypothesis, i.e. suppressed trees are better materials for TMP production. Several logs from the same lot to be used for mill trial were harvested and shipped to our Lab to conduct a
laboratory TMP study. The focus of the study is to verify the difference between the suppressed growth and normal growth materials (using the approximate same species mixed ratio as found in the field) for TMP production.
Impacts
Forest management activities throughout the U.S. interior west has changed to reflect a growing interest in managing public land for a range of values that place less values on economic commodity values and more attention to other types of outputs such as insect and disease outbreaks and fires that occur. Overstocked, suppressed forests are at the most risk. Our research will develop technologies and processes for the utilization of thinned materials by the pulp and paper industry, one of the major consumers of woody materials. If the hypothesis that suppressed growth trees can produce better thermomechanical pulp (or needs less refining energy) due to uniform cell wall thickness is proven in mill trial demonstration, the pulp and paper industry will be more willing to use the materials. Furthermore, the thinning materials will be more valuable. Therefore, the success of our work will facilitate to develop policies for better utilization of our nation's valuable
forest resources and stimulate local economy in the rural area.
Publications
- Myers, Gary C. 2004. Optimizing lodgepole pine submerchantable log themomechanical pulp. Wood and Fiber Science. 36(4): 476-482.
- Klungness, John H.; Gleisner, Roland; Mann, Doreen; Scallon, Karen L.; Zhu, J.Y.; et. al. 2005. Evaluation of forest thinning materials for TMP production. In: Proceedings of the 2005 TAPPI pulping conference; 2005 August 28-31; Philadelphia, PA. Atlanta, GA: TAPPI Press: Available: CD-ROM, Order number: EPECD-05.
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Progress 10/01/03 to 09/30/04
Outputs
Research in this problem not only focuses on the ongoing fundamental understanding of the fiber resources from suppressed growth small-diameter trees and their possible effect on pulp and paper production, but also shifts to industrial demonstration of utilization of the fiber derived from these trees for newsprint production. Recently, timber sales by government land managers have tended to be used to meet ecological goals rather than providing economic benefits for timber management. With the shortage of good fiber resources for paper production and public awareness of forest fire, the pulp and paper industry is willing to take nontraditional fiber resources, such as forest thinning materials, in pulp production as we found in dealing with the industry. Therefore, pulp and paper production is one of the logical exits for the very large amount of forest thinning materials from the national forests, especially in the U.S. mountain west region. Silviscan analysis of
wood disks from various small-diameter trees were conducted to get tree silviculture and anatomy data, e.g., density, cell population, fiber coarseness, etc. We also assembled a team consisting of a university (the University of Idaho), a newsprint mill, an integrated sawmill, and other Forest Service organizations (Colville National Forest, WA) to conduct a mill demonstration of using thinned materials from a National Forest for newsprint production. Industrial pilot scale tests were first conducted in blending wood chips from forest-thinned materials for pulp production, positive results were obtained. Mill demonstration is in the final planning stage for getting the needed materials for the trial.
Impacts
Forest management activities throughout the U.S. interior west has changed to reflect a growing interest in managing public land for a range of values that place less value on economic commodity values and more attention to other types of outputs such as insect and disease outbreaks and fires that occur. Overstocked, suppressed forests are at the most risk. Our research will develop technologies and processes for the utilization of thinned materials by the pulp and paper industry, one of the major consumers of woody materials. The success of our work will facilitate to develop policies to better utilization of our nation's valuable forest resources and stimulate local economy in the rural area.
Publications
- Myers, Gary C.; Barbour, R. James; AbuBakr, Said M. 2003. Small-diameter trees used for chemithermomechanical pulps. General Technical Report FPL-GTR-141. Madison, WI: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory: 12 p.
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Progress 10/01/02 to 09/30/03
Outputs
Research in this problem focuses on basic knowledge and technology needed to increase the use of small diameter and underutilized tree species for pulp and paper products to improve forest health and reduce the fire risk. Recently, timber sales by government land managers have tended to be used to meet ecological goals rather than providing economic benefits for timber management. The resource management will often be smaller diameter or a different species than traditionally offered, therefore pulp and paper with its large need for fiber is a logical use for these materials. Small diameter trees from several softwood species were pulped by chemical (kraft), mechanical (thermomechanical and chemimechanical) and biomechanical pulping processes, and we continue to find both positive and negative differences from their corresponding mature wood. We are in the process of preparing manuscripts of the results.
Impacts
Forest management activities throughout the U.S. interior west has changed to reflect a growing interest in managing public land for a range of values that place less values on economic commodity values and more attention to other types of outputs such as insect and disease outbreaks and fires that occur. Overstocked suppressed forests are at the most risk. Our research has continued to find both positive and negative differences from pulping small diameter trees from several softwood species from their corresponding mature wood. We are in the process of preparing manuscripts of the results of chemical (kraft), mechanical (thermomechanical and chemimechanical) and biomechanical pulping experiments.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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