Many industries have reaped
the benefits of biotechnology in recent years,
including textiles, medicine and agriculture. Now
the U.S. pulp and paper industry, working in concert
with a Georgia research institute, is hoping to
put biotech solutions to work to maintain the global
competitiveness of the southern pine forests.
At the Atlanta-based Institute
of Paper Science and Technology (IPST), a major
research effort is underway to help meet the
challenges the forest industry is facing. Scientists
at IPST are using innovative biotechnology approaches
to improve forest products and reduce their costs.
The need for improved industrial
performance is urgent as the industry grapples
with large challenges in recent years, including
a decreasing global competitiveness, weakening
profits, large company mergers, and deteriorating
shareholder values. The American Forest and Paper
Association reports that in the past ten years,
U.S. employment related to lumbering, milling
and paper production declined by more than 10
percent. At the same time, the forest product
trade deficit grew from $1.6 billion in 1990
to $8.3 billion in 2000 as cheaper foreign products
made inroads into the U.S. market.
The growing challenge of a
decreasing global competitiveness stems, in part,
from competition from subtropical regions of
the world, especially South America and Southeast
Asia, where warm climates spur the faster growth
of trees.
"The lower cost, competitive
products emerging from these areas are eroding
the basic competitiveness of the U.S. industry," says
Jim Ferris, president of IPST, who cites the
competitive advantages of lower cost of wood
and labor, favorable government support, and
less environmental regulation in these regions.
The forest products industry
plays a major role in the overall U.S. economy
and is particularly important in the state of
Georgia. According to the latest figures by the
American Forest and Paper Association, forest
products are the second most valuable U.S. agricultural
product, valued at $22.5 billion, second only
to corn. The industry directly employs about
1.7 million people. In the southern United States,
one of nine manufacturing jobs can be linked
to southern pine forests, from planting to harvesting
to the production of forest-based products. In
Georgia, more than 24 million acres are planted
in commercial pine, and forest products are one
of the largest economic drivers in the state.
The demand for forest products
is expected to grow in the future; experts estimate
that by
2010 the global demand for paper will increase by as much
as 50 percent. Yet, worries Jim Ferris and others like him,
the chance that this demand growth can be economically met
by the United States is becoming less and less likely.
Thus comes the promise of
biotechnology. Many paper and pulp companies
are putting their faith (and a considerable amount
of funding) into research and development and
organizations like IPST, which specializes in
research for the pulp and paper industry, are
conducting the fundamental research required
to change things.
Current IPST research is being
focused on loblolly pine, a species native to
the southeastern U.S. and the dominant softwood
timber species in our region. One of the most
promising approaches being honed at IPST is somatic
embryogenesis of this conifer, which will allow
the replication of selected high-value, fast
growing trees. Here, scientists are able to duplicate
the natural process that occurs in the seed and
are able to create multiple copies of superior
seedlings, ultimately resulting in the ability
to grow more economically competitive timber
and fiber. The technique, explains IPST faculty
member John Cairney, allows for the rapid germination
of thousands of trees from one seed. "Thus,
we can replicate all the best qualities of our
best trees," he explains.
This intricate process involves
numerous steps, ranging from the culture of a
seed embryo using plant hormones to germination
that will produce a hearty seedling ready for
planting in the field.
At present, although the process
is time consuming, the benefits are already apparent,
Jerry Pullman, IPST professor of forest biology, says. Researchers
now believe this technology can bring faster growing trees
to a much smaller land base, which means a lower cost product.
Furthermore, the use of less acreage for the pulp and paper
industry would enable more land to be used for recreational
purposes or environmental set-asides. Lastly, these technologies
will ultimately produce more uniform trees, thus increasing
their value both in the manufacturing process and for the
ultimate customer.
Pullman and others at IPST
predict that their research is very close to
a break
through and believe the large scale, commercial replication
of superior, faster growing loblolly pine seedlings is in
the foreseeable future. The paper industry, with a wary eye
on the steady supply of paper and forest products coming
from overseas, hopes they are right. And every forest products
employee and southern pine landowner in Georgia has a stake
in the outcome of this biotech battle to maintain global
competitiveness of Georgia forestlands.
In a broader sense, it is
believed that pioneering research efforts in
biomanufacturing will also boost paper industry
productivity in a number of new ways, explains
Art Ragauskas of IPST. He cites the creation
of higher value wood fibers, the lowering of
manufacturing costs, and the development of new
materials from which new products can be designed
and produced as being the primary focus of this
work.
"It's not just biotechnology
for its own sake," he says, noting that
good, solid fundamental research applied to the
goals of the industry is what is needed. Recent
advances in biotechnology will provide pulp and
paper producers new low cost manufacturing technologies
that will improve pulp yields, simplify pulp
bleaching operations and allow for the design
of new tailored fiber properties. In recycling
technology, biotechnology research studies at
IPST are directed at developing bio-bleaching
systems that can supplement chemical processes.
In the future, these bio-based processes will
displace other mechanical refining processes
reducing energy costs associated with the production
of recycled paper. In addition, the waste products
from modern recycling and pulps mills will become
a valuable resource for the generation of biofuels.
This emerging technology will convert a costly
waste product into a valuable future resource.
Advances in biotechnology
hold out promise for many of the issues facing
our world, and the forest products industry is
no exception. From tree growth to biomanufacturing
to environmental treatment, the science of biotechnology
is dramatically changing this Georgia industry.
The Institute of Paper Science and Technology,
along with other universities and research partners
is a key component in developing the needed expertise
to transfer the potential of biotechnology from
the laboratory into commercial applications.
These benefits will re-define the pulp and paper
industry in the south in much the same manner
that Dr. C. Herty did in the early 1930s.
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