The Alberta Forestry Research Institute held its final board meeting in Edmonton in August. A new “Biosolutions” corporation takes over from AFRI, as well as the Alberta Agricultural Research Institute and the Alberta Life Sciences Institute, this fall. 

A series of presenters described the progress of projects supported by AFRI. Art Froehlich, who is transitional industry leader of the new Biosolutions organization, sat in on the meeting and said he fully expects the future will see continued advancements in forestry research.

“There’s no doubt the forestry side will continue to be very important,” he told The Edge. “The biomaterials potential is huge, and forestry is a major producer of fibre.  There’s a huge opportunity and my anticipation is that the whole fibre emphasis in biomaterials and biorefining will be a great opportunity that really will benefit forestry and agriculture together.”

Con Dermott, industry co-chair of the industry, said he and fellow co-chair Doug Elniski had made a point of organizing a meeting that would give Froehlich a good knowledge of what research had been done and what was planned for future work, to help with the smooth transition to the new corporation.

Gary Smith, technical director with Alberta Newsprint Company in Whitecourt, described progress in installing new machinery and sensing systems that came out of research supported by AFRI. “We can now operate more efficiently with green wood, and will be able to retain paper quality characteristics as the proportion of mountain pine beetle wood increase, which will have a significant impact on our continued viability.”

ANC operates Alberta’s only paper machine, and has a reputation for producing top-quality paper for clients such as The Edmonton Journal and USA Today.  It installed a new “shoe press” in August designed specifically for its particular chip supply, complemented by some new sensor technology that differentiates between dead and green chips as well as chip species. 

“AFRI’s dollar support was extremely valuable to us,” Smith told The Edge. “Equally important, however, was the behind-thescenes work done by AFRI’s staff and board members. They bridged the gap between industry problems and research potential just through talking with people and building networks.”

Just one example was a meeting where it came to light that ANC had fibre residues in the bush just being burned, while energy installations in the area had to use natural gas to generate steam for gas processing.  AFRI posed the idea of a small-scale biofueled generating system that could solve both problems if the right research and engineering were done.

“We’re going way beyond sharing roads with the energy sector, we are integrating wood waste in rural areas, we are reducing the use of natural gas, we are supporting the greening of the oil industry – there’s carbon credits, there’s job creation – it’s a beautiful thing,” said Smith.

Wayne Thorp is an AFRI board member, and also a veteran of the forest industry, the Alberta Science and Research Authority, and the Forest Industry Sustainability Committee. He said AFRI helped bring focus and results to the forest research arena. 

“Before this we were limping along with different agencies and initiatives,” Thorp told The Edge. “Perhaps the most beneficial accomplishments have been getting industry people on board in terms of operationalizing research results, having access to some government dollars to reduce the risk inherent in innovation, being able to coordinate research priorities and establishing a more strategic focus.”

He congratulated the co-chairs on turning things around and getting industry involved in the innovation process.

Patience is always required, Thorp said.  “Innovation comes by necessity – but we are on our knees in industry at the moment, and there’s more openness to new possibilities.  We can make better products, in better ways, and become more viable with new revenues streams. There’s more interest now than there was three years ago.”

By DAVID HOLEHOUSE