During the 1921 inaugural meeting of the “Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association,” members were reminded of the importance of their work by Commerce Secretary and future President Herbert Hoover when he stated, “I have a feeling that this coming together of manufacturers in the different trades for the purpose of the advancement of their industry as a whole is a profound step towards cooperation in the entire business world, and that out of it will be gained tremendous benefits to the whole business public.”
Charles Herty, a University of Georgia chemistry professor, was unanimously elected as the group’s first president. Herty’s special love? The pine tree. He knew of the vast possibilities held within the chemistry of southern pine. One hundred years later, scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have the same vision.
National Alliance of Forest Owners President Dave Tenny’s recent Agri-Pulse op-ed was timely and accurate. Is there a role for forest residuals in meeting demand for sustainable aviation fuels? We think so. We are also confident that a broader range of value-added products derived from woody biomass can rejuvenate and reshore American manufacturing jobs and thus strengthen our country’s critical infrastructure.
We borrow from our Greek friends and call the discipline Xylochemistry, wood chemistry.
Herty’s research unlocked the naval stores industry of old. New processes and proprietary chemical pathways will soon enable pilot plant manufacturing of products Herty could not imagine. XyloKool is a non-toxic, high performing, sustainable coolant. Xylon is a sustainable, comfortable fiber for athletic wear. XyloHyde is a renewable leather destined to change the paradigm of baseball glove manufacturing. And we are just getting started.
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We have developed a wood biomass-sourced packaging plastic alternative that has one of the lowest water vapor transmission rates reported to date for a purely renewable material. In the world of plastics, that is high value. This suite of products could work in concert with Xylon as a coating to improve oxygen or water vapor barrier for packaging film applications.
The Georgia Tech ReWOOD Center team believes that a renewable economy based on wood awaits. We believe the challenges posed by global competition for finite natural resources are real.
We seek to Re-THINK chemical, biological, and mechanical processes to unlock renewable and sustainable solutions from the forest. In doing so, we can provide solutions that will restore environmental ecosystems, jobs to rural economies, forest product markets for landowners, and a healthier and more prosperous forest industry in the United States.
To quote Henry David Thoreau, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived…. if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
Andreas Bommarius is cofounder of the ReWOOD Center and a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, and of chemistry and biochemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology.