AbitibiBowater now home to lab looking for natural glue

There’s another player in the forestry industry that can help AbitibiBowater pay the bills, says general manager Doug Murray.

The mill is now home to a research laboratory and demonstration plant operated by FPInnovations, a not-for-profit research and development company that will extract lignin from black liquor and test it in the hopes that it could eventually replace petroleum-based chemicals and adhesives.

“Lignin is one of the most prominent substances in the world,” Murray said. “It’s available in all the vegetation we see whether it’s grass or the trees. It’s the glue Mother Nature uses to hold together all these natural fibres.”

Normally, the mill burns the lignin and recovers the energy value, thereby reducing their electricity costs.

But now, Murray said they can use the lab to discover new uses for it, particularly ways to replace products made from oil or hydrocarbons.

“Here we have a green product we presently burn, can we do something with it?” he said.

“That’s what the purpose of this lab is. Can we move up the food chain in the line of chemical products we can make from lignin?”

The demonstration plant at the mill will produce 100 kilograms of lignin per day, an amount needed to meet the supply requirement.

Murray said having the lab and plant at the mill, is just another way to strengthen the base industry and use AbitibiBowater’s existing infrastructure.

“Can we develop something in this lab that we can use more of the forest?” he said. “If we can do that, that makes the base industry we have here in the line of lumber, craft pulp and paper more sustainable in the long haul.”

The project received $850,000 in funding from the Centre for Research and Innovation in the Bio-Economy and $500,000 from Natural Resources Canada.

CRIBE CEO Lorne Morrow said they’ve been supporting the operating costs of the project for about two years and has invested more than $2 million.

As a former owner of a now-closed paper mill, Morrow said it’s nice to be involved in the upswing by bringing in new ideas and new products.

“We’re great at making newsprint and pulp and making lumber,” he said. “If we can take that stream and add value to it, yes, it’s job creation, but it’s job retention. This is an anchor mill and we want this mill to stay here. We want this mill to grow. We want this mill to be efficient. If by finding new higher value products through byproducts like lignin, then we win. “