Forest Bioproducts Research Institute

While Martin Lawoko was in primary school in Uganda his father was in exile, one of a lucky few to escape the infamous killing floors and blood soaked cells of Uganda’s “State Research Center” at Nakasero. In a country where chaos and brutality surrounded much of his young life, Martin found order and magic in […]

Dr. van Walsum has dedicated his career to research and industrial work in energy supply, production and sustainability. With industrial experience in oil production and refining and research work…

Pulp and Paper Foundation- The Dandy Scroll The University of Maine’s proprietary “van Heiningen process” for hemicellulose extraction from woodchips prior to pulping is moving towards technology deployment stage. The “van Heiningen process” is UMaine’s patent-pending technology developed with grants from the Department of Energy on its Industries of the Future (IoF) program, the National […]

“Biomass and Biofuels in Maine: Estimating Supplies for Expanding the Forest Products Industry” finds that ethanol production from Maine’s forest residues could potentially provide 32% of Maine’s transportation fuels with a fermentation wood to ethanol process. (The work of Dickerson, Rubin, Kavkewitz includes collaborative research between FBRI, the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center, the School […]

Dr. Douglas Gardner (FBRI faculty) and a visiting PhD candidate from Norway working on wood pellet technology are proposing joint research with Corinth Wood Pellets LLC of Corinth, Maine. Company owner Kenneth Eldridge explains: “As a new producer of wood pellet fuel in Maine, we are interested in partnering with researchers at the University of […]

FBRI’s Jeff Benjamin hosted the Forest Products Society (Northeast Section) conference, “A Strategic Planning Session for the Forest Bioproducts Industry,” on Oct. 18-19, 2007. Introduction to Conference and Speakers Building the Forest Bioproducts Industry in the Northeast: Finding the Combinations that FitEric Kingsley- Innovative Natural Reserouce Solutions LLC Community and Economic Development Impacts of Wood-Based […]

A revolutionary research project at the University of Maine will help breathe new life into Old Town’s former Georgia-Pacific mill and, according to projections, bring more than 1,000 jobs to the area over the next two years. A group of investors calling itself Red Shield Environmental plans to use the mill and its biomass boiler […]

“Fresh From the Woods” Newsletter- Forests for Maine’s Future “The time will come, in two or three decades, when we will look at the days of only sawing boards and making paper as the Dark Ages,” says Robert G. Wagner, a professor of forestry at the University of Maine. “The chemical versatility of wood is […]

It may seem like a surreal road trip to travel from a muddy logging operation deep in Maine’s woodlands to the floor of the U.S. Senate and back to a climate controlled laboratory in Orono, where wood is sheared into tiny nanofibers, eaten by experimental enzymes or cooked down into sugars that will re-emerge as […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded more than $1.5 million in federal funding to the University of Maine to advance the university’s ongoing efforts to develop methods for converting biomass from Maine’s forests into fuels and valuable chemicals. The state will contribute 50 percent in matching funds to the multi-faceted project through the Maine […]