Bark is one of the largest by-products of the Scandinavian forest industries. For example, the bark for the common Norway spruce (Picea abies) alone amounts to about 1.5 million tons/year in Sweden. This abundant biomass is commonly used as a fuel to produce heat and electrical energy in the mill, but in recent decades, there has been a growing interest in converting industrial bark into added value products in an approach called “the Bark Biorefinery”. The Bark Biorefinery research has focused on processes for fractionation of bark components, i.e. on a deeper fundamental knowledge of the bark biorefinery to isolate and characterize the components as well as create demonstrators and possibilities to upscale the fractionation processes. The target has primarily been to extract bark polysaccharides and extractives, such as betulin, suberin based epoxy fatty acids, and evaluate their properties in various applications. The project has resulted in new methods for isolation and characterization of bark compounds such as polysaccharides, pectins, suberin and epoxy fatty acids as well as lignin and cellulose nanocrystals from bark. The bark compounds have successfully been used in material demonstrators such as barrier films and textile coatings. The presentation will highlight results from past and ongoing bark biorefinery projects.

Bark, an underutilized raw material source - highlighgts from the bark biorefinery

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.