The expensive, energy-intensive process of turning wood into paper costs the pulp and paper industries more than $6 billion a year. Much of that expense involves separating wood’s cellulose from lignin, the glue that binds a tree’s fibers, by using an alkali solution and both high temperatures and high pressures. Wood with less lignin and more cellulose would save the industry millions of dollars a year in processing and chemical costs. Researchers at North Carolina State University are close to achieving that goal and have already reduced trees lignin content by almost 50%, thanks to the first successful dual-gene alteration in forestry science. Their results showed not only a decrease in lignin but also an increase in cellulose in transgenic aspens. And their work yielded another benefit: the trees grew faster. Fast-growing, low-lignin trees will offer environmental advantages, since the costly process of separating lignin from cellulose – using harsh alkaline chemicals and high heat – is environmentally unfriendly. Harvesting fast-growing low-lignin trees from plantations would also reduce pressure on existing forests.

Eventually, the techniques discovered by NC State could lead to improvements in the way the world grows and uses other types of trees, including pine species crucial to the health of American forestry industries.

Related Links

• PSE Degrees
• Forest Biotechnology Group

Key Contacts