The Comprehensive Utilization of Barks at Home and Abroad

Bai Xuesong is editor in Information Research Institute,Chinese Academy of Forestry。

The barks account for 10-15% of all-tree biomass. It is estimated that there are more than 400 million M~3 barks processed by forest industriesaround the world every year. The rational utilization, therefore, of theseeconomic natural resources plays an active role in the development of fore-st industries. This paper reviews briefly the methods and properties of co-mprehensive utilization of barks in foreign countries and presents the achi-evements and successful experiences of some developed countries in the re-search and development of barkbased products, such as the stacked fertili-zer, soil improver, fodder, matting etc. for agricultural uses and pulp,tannin resin adhesive, wood preservative, wood-bark/all-bark particleboa-rd, the moulded composites, food additive, medicinal, fuel, activated char-coal and scavenger etc. for industrial uses. At the same time, the paperintroduces the current status of the exploration and application of barks inChina. The investigation shows that a total of 4.5-5.0 million m~3 barksare produced in our country annually, but only 1-2% of them are indus-trially utilized, mainly for extracting some chemicals such as tannin extra-cts, and other uses including for producing tannin-based wood adhesive,manufacturing wood-bark panels, extracting gum, cultivating mushroometc. have also been reported on lab level. Refering to the experiences ofother countries, the paper analyses and discusses how to enlarge and stre-ngthen the research and development of the abundant unused barks in Ching.Also, it suggests systematically the development orientation which is fit forour country in exploring bark-based products on the basis of comparing thecurrent level of completed wood utilization, social background, technicaland economic conditions as well as marketing opportunities between Chinaand other countries. In conclusion, there is a very large potentiality ofutilization of barks in China.