Agenda 2020 Explores Forest Products R&D Opportunities at Quarterly Meeting
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At its largest quarterly meeting to date on November 27 in Knoxville, Tenn., USA, the Agenda 2020 Technology Alliance reviewed R&D priorities and federal funding opportunities for projects of interest to the forest products industry. The session was held in conjunction with the TAPPI International Research Management Committee (IRMC) annual meeting. Participating in the meeting were 50 people from 9 countries, representing 14 pulp and paper companies, 7 supplier companies, 12 universities, and 5 research centers.
Agenda 2020 is the industry's unique forum in the U.S. on science and technology issues. Its mission includes voicing the industry's technology needs, enabling development of new technologies, leveraging industry resources with external funding, and supporting company technology interests.
Agenda 2020's participation was cited as a critical success factor in the DOE funding of a $2.6 million research project to develop sacrificial coatings for membrane-based concentration of weak black liquor. The project's kick-off meeting was held in November. If successful, the technology could be an alternative for the first two evaporator stages. Conducting assessments of the potential economic benefits possible to a typical pulp and paper mill is a key project task for Agenda 2020.
Responses to government requests for information from Agenda 2020 presented industry perspectives in regard to the proposed $1 billion National Network for Manufacturing Innovation and the DOE Biomass roadmap for conversion technologies for advanced biofuels. Both entries can be viewed online.
Recently, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack requested information on opportunities for the U.S. government to support development of nanocellulose applications. Agenda 2020‘s response outlined a plan for a national R&D program. Federal leaders are suggesting inter-departmental/inter-industry executive briefings to highlight the commercial potential for nanocellulose.
The Knoxville meeting included a review of the industry's evolving research priorities. Members and guests also acknowledged the need to increase the visibility of the industry's research needs and of emerging areas of investigation at research institutions, including government labs and agencies, to attract scientists and funding to industry opportunities.
Several opportunities emerged to increase international research collaboration on pre-competitive topics in the industry. One, for example, involves the European COST Action 1150, featuring working groups undertaking fundamental studies of the cell physics in tree growth, impacts of cell structures on pulping, bleaching, and papermaking processes, and mechanisms of biopolymer self-assembly processes. A president from a European research institute commented on how similar the challenges in working with government funding agencies are in the U.S. and Europe and how similar the way we organize to face them.
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