A pilot manufacturing site in Vancouver, Canada, has started producing “wood foam”, a material developed at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and brought into production via a partnership with the Wet’suwet’en First Nation.
The site turns wood fibre into lightweight blocks for packaging and insulation uses.
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The work involves Feng Jiang of UBC’s faculty of forestry and environmental stewardship and DicinFoam, a majority-owned subsidiary of YLP, the Wet’suwet’en First Nation’s business arm.
The process uses wood waste from logging activity and forest fires, material that might otherwise be burned or thrown away.
It is being used to make biodegradable packaging and insulation products.
The intellectual property behind the technology is jointly owned by UBC and YLP.
At the plant, softwood species including spruce, pine and fir are processed with heat, mechanical methods and limited chemical additives to produce the foam.
In packaging, the material is intended to decompose in soil within months.
The site is also making insulation panels treated to meet building performance standards. This segment of the market currently depends largely on imported wood-based products.
Jiang’s lab is still involved in the next stage of development, including testing different feedstock mixes and widening possible uses.
A key role in the move from research to production is being played by DicinFoam chief technology officer Yeling Zhu.
He carried out postdoctoral work in Dr. Jiang’s lab, later left for another company, and then returned to lead the scale-up.
The Vancouver operation is producing 150kg to 200kg of wood foam a day.
The next planned stage is a larger facility in Burns Lake, within Wet’suwet’en territory, with a targeted capacity of 1,000tpa of biodegradable foam.
The project is expected to create as many as 15 jobs in the area.
After that, the company plans to move into a 15,000t facility on Vancouver Island, where a further 35 to 60 jobs are expected.
