Chemical Utilization of Forest Resources

Zu Buosun is associate professor in Research Institute of Wood Industry, Chinese Academy of Forestry.

As the limitation of the world's fossil raw materials has beenwidely recongnized, a world- wide increase of interest can be noticed inthe field of chemical utilization of wood and biomass in recent years. Inthis paper, the necessity and potential significance of the only renewableresource, biomass, especially the forest biomass for the production ofchemicals in meeting future chemical needs were described. The economicfeasibility for production of certain major chemicals from lignocellulosicmaterial at present and in the future was discussed. The production pro-cesses, the main chemical products from cellulose, hemicellulose and lig-nin, and some of their uses both as macromolecular and low-moleculear-weight compounds are briefly introduced. The methods of wood processingbeing used and tested for production of chemicals, such as pyrolysis, gasi-fication, liquefaction and saccharification were also mentioned. The newtechnology being developed, such as the use of enzymes for cellulose hy-drolysis, the fermentation and use of solvents for separation of lignin andcellulose, the researches required for chemical utilization of woody ma-terial in the future were figured out. Finally, some suggestions to thedevelopment of producing chemicals from forest resource in China weremade.