1588 



Canadian Forestry Journal, March, 1918 



Millions Lost in Waste Wood 



What Investigative Science is doing 

 to turn Rubbish into Real Money 



Thirty-six million cords of waste 

 are turned out annually by 48,000 

 sawmills in the United States. About 

 half of this can be used as fuel in the 

 mills themselves; the rest they have 

 to pay to get rid of. What can be 

 made of this eighteen million cords we 

 are told by Frank J. Hallaner, of the 

 Forest Products Laboratory at Madi- 

 son, Wis., in an article on "Forest 

 Products," contributed to The 

 Southern Lumberman. Scientific 



research, says Mr. Hallaner, in so far 

 as it can develop the utilization of 

 this waste, is extending our forest 

 resources and providing for industrial 

 development without jeopardizing 

 future supplies. The chief difficulty 

 in utilizing sawdust and shavings is 

 their bulk and low value. The fibre 

 has been destroyed to such an extent 

 in sawdust that it is unsuitable for 

 pulp, and it can not well be used for 

 destructive distillation. He goes on, 

 in substance: 



Making Alcohol 



"One of the most promising fields 

 for the utilization of sawdust lies in 

 the manufacture of ethyl (grain) 

 alcohol. This process is particularly 

 attractive, because it will use almost 

 any kind of wood waste. From ex- 

 periments at the Forest Products 

 Laboratory, and consequent improve- 

 ment in the process, it appears that 

 95 per cent, alcohol can be produced 

 at a cost of about 15 cents per gallon. 

 Two large plants are now operating 

 in the South. 



"To produce the total 1914 output 

 (77,000,000 tax gallons) would require 

 only 2,000,000 7'ords of waste; and 

 the annual production of Southern 

 pine sawmill waste alone is about 

 twelve and one-half million cords. 



"The larger waste at the mill could 

 be reduced to sawdust and used in the 

 cthyl-alcohol process, but there are 



other uses to which such material can 

 be put, along with the small, inferior 

 timber left in the woods as waste. In 

 a general way it may be said that the 

 softwood waste of this nature is suit- 

 able for pulp and the hardwood waste 

 for destructive distillation. Only 8 

 per cent, of pulp wood is now mill 

 waste, and this percentage can doubt- 

 less be considerably increased. It is 

 possible that by installing barking 

 and chipping machines a sawmitl 

 could chip waste according to pulp- 

 mill specifications. These chips could 

 be shipped in bulk for short hauls, or 

 dried and baled for long hauls. 



Dyestuffs Produced 



"Wood waste is being used in a 

 variety of other industries as a source 

 of tannin, dyestufT, turpentine, and 

 resin. There is a wide field being 

 opened up by the application of chemi- 

 cal research to forest products. 



"The early practice of leaching 

 wood ashes as a part of the home soap- 

 making has disappeared, but it is now 

 being revived as a source of potash to 

 offset the shortage of fertilizer due to 

 the war. 



"In the Red River Valley of Texas 

 the Indians long ago used Osage 

 orange for dyeing, but it has never 

 gained commercial recognition as a 

 dyewood. Within the last few years, 

 however, the Forest Products Labora- 

 tory has succeeded in getting it into 

 the market as a substitute for fustic, 

 which we import from Jamaica and 

 Tehuantepec, and over a million 

 dollars' worth of this dye is now^ being 

 made by our American manufacturers 

 and this from mill waste 



"The needles or leaves of the conif- 

 erous trees are found to have little 

 ducts running through them filled 

 with oil. This oil from a number of 

 species has a very attractive odor and 

 is used in greases and shoe blackings. 



