This Partnership for Innovation project from SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry will improve and enhance the technology for Hot Water Extraction (HWE) to carefully and completely deconstruct wood. The process that is being developed and applied will sustainably and cost effectively extract highly valuable carbohydrate and chemical assets from wood fiber. The enhanced technology that will result from this research will facilitate the development of valuable bioproducts that increase the rate of commercial implementations. These HWE derived bioproducts will replace similar products which are made from less sustainable and by less efficient means both in the U.S. and abroad. The wood fiber (and its constituent asset elements that will be the focus of this project) is currently primarily being burned for energy. In addition to the production advantages of HWE technology, the production of these products within the forested economic regions where industry needs them will reduce transportation costs and environmental impacts.
The broader impacts of this project will accelerate the building of capacity and skill to strategically locate, engineer, design, fabricate equipment, and build facilities to efficiently and cost-effectively make products from existing raw materials; frequently on existing underutilized sites. Further, the partners will gain significant technical expertise and market advantage in understanding how to enhance the HWE process for these carbohydrate and chemical products. The broader impacts of this research extend to all forested regions of the U.S.
The Knowledge Enhancement Partners are the lead academic institution , the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and three small for profit business: 1) Applied Biorefinery Sciences, Syracuse, New York, Dr. Joel Howard; 2) Highland Engineering, Glens Falls, New York ( Mr. Patrick Sullivan, and 3) Miller Mechanical Services, Glens Falls, New York , Ms. Elizabeth Miller. RockTenn is a large for-profit forest products business and a non-KEP partner; the liaison is Dr. Jose Iribarne at the Solvay, NY facility.
