In 2011, the Northwest Advanced Renewables Alliance (NARA), led by Washington State University, was awarded a five-year grant by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture to develop an economical pathway for the production of aviation fuel from woody biomass. As an industry member of NARA, one of Weyerhaeuser's roles in the project is to produce new value-added materials from the lignin co-products that will be produced along with the biofuel. This has been identified as a critical step in making the biofuel production process economically viable. Among the potential products being investigated are bio-based epoxy resins, activated carbon, rubber fillers, and asphalt anti-oxidants. This presentation will provide a brief general overview of the NARA project, a detailed description of the characterization of lignin produced by the various biomass pretreatment processes currently under investigation within NARA, and an overview of the work to convert the lignin into new products.

Characterization of lignin from the NARA project and conversion to new products

245th National Meeting (2013)

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