updated: 7 November 2008

WebMaster: Zahid S. Mahimwalla

November 2008

Prof. Jean Paris
The Forest Biorefinery, an Opportunity for the Canadian
Pulp & Paper Industry, not a Panacea
Monday, 24th November 2008
Public Lecture: 6:00 P.M.
McGill University
Otto Maass Chemistry Building
Room TBA
_____________________________
Council Meeting: 4:30 P.M.
Ruttan Room
_____________________________
Member Reception: 5:30 P.M.
Ruthan Room

October 2008

Prof. Patrick Ayotte
Life and death of a snowflake: Molecular beam studies of elementary heterogeneous atmospheric chemistry processes
Monday, 27th October 2008
Public Lecture: 6:00 P.M.
McGill University
Otto Maass Chemistry Building
Room 328
_____________________________
Council Meeting: 4:30 P.M.
Ruttan Room
_____________________________
Member Reception: 5:30 P.M.
Ruthan Room

September 2008

Dr. Steven J Melnick PhD.,M.D.
Pharmaceutical Medicine in Crisis! A search for harmony between Western and traditional medicine systems
Monday, 22nd September 2008
Public Lecture: 6:00 P.M.
McGill University
Otto Maass Chemistry Building
Room 10
_____________________________
Council Meeting: 4:30 P.M.
Ruttan Room
_____________________________
Member Reception: 5:30 P.M.
Ruthan Room

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24th November 2008

Photo of Jean Paris

Prof. Jean Paris
École Polytechnique de Montréal

PDF Poster

 

 

The Forest Biorefinery, an Opportunity for the Canadian Pulp & Paper Industry, not a Panacea

The Canadian P&P industry is experiencing one of the gravest crises of its history, possibly the worst. This crisis has several causes; one that is likely to last is fierce competition from emerging producing countries with an abundant fast growing resource and very low manufacturing costs. To regain profitability, the industry must implement drastic changes in its product mix and process operations very rapidly: new high value added paper-based products, new transformative technologies. The forest biorefinery is potentially attractive opportunity on both counts. The biorefinery is the utilization of forestry and agricultural biomass to manufacture a spectrum of products by various extraction and transformation pathways: fuels, building blocks and plastic precursors, specialty and pharmaceutical products. Pulp mills would have significant advantage over greenfield biorefineries and could be partially converted while maintaining an upgraded core pulp production. There are also pitfalls: lack of markets knowledge, danger of demand saturation for small-volume products, energy sustainability and carbon footprints. Those issues are examined with emphasis on the energy profile of a biorefinery.