Facilities
FBRI’s research is made possible by state of the art research equipment and laboratories. Please go to Research Projects to see our facilities at work.
FBRI’s Extractor is a custom designed and built system created to extract chemicals from wood biomass. An innovative collaboration between the Cianbro Corporation, Fitch Company, and Honeywell, the extractor was designed by UMaine engineer Keith Hodgins and staff and faculty at UM’s Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. This completely unique system is engineered to advance state of the art wood extraction science. Wood chips and additives are heated in a series of rotating vessels that encourage even mixing and heat distribution. After processing, spent woods chips are removed (and may be used for fuel or in wood composites) and the wood extractives (hemicellulose, for example) can be further treated to produce fuels (ethanol) and other bioproducts.
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