[CANCELLED] BPI Seminar by Dr. Xuejun Zou

Please note: This seminar has been cancelled. We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding.

Manufacturing of Bamboo Pulp & Its Application in Sustainable Tissue & Packaging Products

Location: CHBE #202, 2360 East Mall Vancouver BC V6T 1Z4

Agenda

• 12:00pm Intro by Prof. Chunping Dai
• 12:05pm Presentation by Dr. Xuejun Zou
• 12:45pm Q&A

Abstract

There are increasing concerns about environmental impacts and sustainability by consumers, creating a growing interest from the consumers products and brand companies to explore the use of non-wood fibres, particularly bamboo fibres. Tissue and packaging companies around the world are assessing pulp furnish options (e.g. using non-wood fibres such as bamboo) and adoption of new technologies (e.g. wet and drying molding technologies) that can provide a market edge for their products.  This seminar will cover the following topics:

• Recent trends in using bamboo in tissue and packaging applications
• Morphology and unique features of bamboo fibres compared to wood fibres
• Technology and process improvements in bamboo pulp manufacturing
• Advantages and challenges for bamboo fibres in tissue & packaging applications
• R&D needs for expanding bamboo pulp manufacturing and application

About the Speaker

Dr. Xuejun Zou received a Ph.D. in chemical engineer from McGill University in 1991. He has worked in a number of research areas including paper degradation during aging, paper & packaging performance, and application of cellulosic biomaterials as well as bioactive papers. He was a board member of SENTINEL University Network on development of bioactive paper, funded by NSERC and industry partners (2010-2015). He was also a lead scientist and a member of the Scientific Operations Committee of the NSERC Innovative Green Wood Fibre Network (2012-2015). He co-supervised a number of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows with the University of New Brunswick, University of Toronto and Karlstad University (Sweden). His technical expertise has been sought frequently by the government and industry (e.g. scientific and technical for government funding agencies, technology assessment for nanotechnology companies going to IPOs and expert witness for companies with legal dispute in product quality). His technical contribution has been recognized by numerous awards received from Canada, US and China.Utilization of biomass is paid attention to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The most common method to prepare cellulose from woody biomass is Kraft pulping process. Cellulose is now of particular interests as cellulosic nano materials such as cellulose nanofibers and cellulose nanocrystals. In contrast, lignin and hemicellulose is burnt in the Kraft process to collect energy. Lignin-first approach is also of academic and industrial importance to develop natural aromatic compounds. However, Hemicellulose is rarely isolated as a polymeric compound from woody biomass. We have therefore developed a new methodology to produce cellulose-, lignin-, and hemicellulose-based materials separately from woody biomass via 1 step reaction. This method will contribute to explore novel biomass-based functional materials.