Q&A with MIF Alumnus Rory Read

Change-makers are generating the know-how needed to decarbonize our economy.

Prof. Emeritus Jack Saddler spent much of his career studying how forest and mill residues could substitute for fossil derived petrochemicals. Serving as a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Industrial Senior Chair, Jack recognized an opportunity to reimagine the fuels and chemicals sector during the 1980’s OPEC oil crisis. He has continued to push for alternatives to decarbonize the global economy such as using liquid biofuels and biojet fuels derived from forest residues or fast rotation trees, like popular.

Involved in research and policy discussions surrounding sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), Jack foresaw market openings for alternative, more sustainable fuel sources as governments increasingly clamp down on polluters to curb climate change-related emissions from the aviation sector.

“One of the key drivers for SAF adoption is the emergence of low-carbon fuel standards (LCFSs),” states Jack.

Under BC’s current LCFS regulation which includes regulations surrounding the use of renewable fuel sources, suppliers must meet diesel and gasoline carbon intensity reduction targets of 30% by 2030, relative to 2010 levels. Over that same time period, BC’s aviation fuel reduction schedule gradually ratchets up to a 30% reduction in the carbon intensity of jet fuel – a refined, kerosene-based liquid designed primarily to power jet engines and other turbine engines.

Emissions statistics provide insights into this regulatory push. Globally, private and commercial flights release about 2% of the world’s human derived greenhouse gas emissions. In 2019, approximately 2,065 million litres of jet fuel were used in BC. In 2020, BC’s transportation sector as a whole contributed 36% of total greenhouse gas emissions. In 2021, that figure rose to 41% of BC’s total emissions.

“There is a great deal of demand from the aviation industry for jet fuel with at least some renewable/biomass content to meet carbon fuel regulations,” states Jack. “The major hurdles we face now are high costs and low availability.”

“Although there has been a significant increase in the amount of sustainable aviation fuel produced and used by the aviation sector over the past few years, this is still less than 1% of all jet fuel used today. However, biofuel and biojet are likely to be a major way in which the aviation sector will be able to decarbonize.” — Jack Saddler

The push to decarbonize aviation fuels, along with many other product categories and sectors, stems from a need to cut global emissions of greenhouse gases, the primary drivers of climate change. Key among them are hydrocarbons, such as petroleum, a liquid extracted from layers below the surface of the Earth. Refined fossil-derived fuels, such as oil, gasoline, kerosene or diesel, are finite and are major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions.

When burned, these fuels release carbon dioxide, which retains heat within the Earth’s atmosphere known as the greenhouse effect.

Conversely, bio-based materials, such as bioplastics and biofuels, are either wholly or partly derived from plant or animal biomass feedstocks. Examples of feedstocks for bio-based materials include forest-and-mill residues; food and beverage waste, such as from restaurants, used cooking oil and spoiled food from grocery stores; or agricultural sources, such as from sugarcane harvest and processing to produce sugar.

Some bio-based materials can be fully decomposed by bacteria, fungi or other living organisms before being reabsorbed into the natural environment. However, not all are created equal. For example, some bioplastics may be no more biodegradable than traditional, petroleum-based plastics. Legislation exists in parts of the world with respect to labelling products as biodegradable, but much of the onus is placed on the consumer to decide which products meet their standard for carbon emissions and biodegradability.

Turning trash into treasure

Transforming products from the forest sector into renewable alternatives to fossil fuels and chemicals is a focus of several UBC Forestry & Environmental Stewardship faculty members. Prof. Shawn Mansfield’s lab researches the use of biotechnology to engineer trees for biochemicals, which is complemented by the work of Department of Wood Science Profs. Emily Cranston, Assoc. Prof. Feng Jiang, Prof. Scott Renneckar and Prof. Orlando Rojas, who are investigating the conversion of wood into new innovative bio-based materials.

Also in the Department of Wood Science, UBC Forestry & Environmental Stewardship Asst. Prof. Jaya Joshi is researching novel methods for converting biomass-derived feedstocks from waste products into value-added products – “turning trash ingo treasure,” as Jaya puts it.

By harnessing the power of synthetic biology – which combines DNA technology, engineering principles and computational tools – her research investigates methods to design and repurpose natural processes for the upcycling of waste products. Jaya and her team utilize microbes as green factories, rewiring their internal metabolisms to produce bioproducts. The team in her BioCycle Lab combines machine learning – a form of artificial intelligence (AI) – approaches with custom-designed biocatalysts and microbial engineering to speed up chemical reactions, enabling the production of bioproducts on an industrial scale.

Plastic Problem

Each year, around 400 million tonnes of non-biodegradable plastic waste are added to the global tally, with much of it gradually ending up in landfills or breaking apart into the microscopic plastic bits now found throughout the food chain. The sheer volume of plastic accumulating in landfills and ecosystems is wreaking havoc on water quality, aquatic species and communities. This fact prompted 175 nations at the March 2022 UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi to agree to an international resolution to end plastic pollution through better waste management and reduction throughout its lifecycle: from production to use and disposal.

Jaya’s sustainable chemistry approach can be used to make everything from food preservatives to pharmaceuticals, biofuels and industrial chemicals, with potential implications for optimizing and greening the biomanufacturing processes of a wide range of additional products yet to be identified.

“We are putting forest products in a petri dish. The principles used here can be applied to feedstocks from food processing waste, agricultural residues and municipal waste, the repurposing of which is needed as part of a unified effort to realize Canada’s goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.” — Jaya Joshi

The lure of lignin

Building on the three Rs: reduce, reuse and recycle, a frequent target of bio-based materials is the transformation of underutilized materials into useful, everyday items, states UBC Forestry & Environmental Stewardship Asst. Prof. Kwang Ho Kim. With a background in chemistry using lignin – a complex organic polymer containing oxygen that is one of the most abundant compounds found in plant matter – Kwang Ho’s research is attempting to unlock the potential of the notoriously headache-inducing material. “Lignin has a lot of potential, but its structure varies greatly depending on the source, such as the type of plant, and the method used to extract it,” he says. “Even in cases in which we extract lignin from the same species of tree, its structure may vary widely.”

The lead of the Biorefinery and Biomass Conversion Lab, Kwang Ho and his team explore sustainable biorefinery approaches to convert biomass into value-added products, such as platform chemicals utilized to create other chemicals. Their investigations into green solvents, extraction processes and structural modification of lignin aim to establish a more uniform product for downstream use in, for example, pharmaceuticals, advanced plastics, lithium-ion batteries, supercapacitors and packaging materials.

“Greater uniformity of lignin feedstocks will help make this bio-based material more feasible, viable, economical and scalable as a replacement for petrochemicals in commercial operations.” — Kwang Ho Kim

“In BC, we are uniquely positioned because of our vast forest resources and residues that can be sourced to build up Canada’s bioeconomy,” says Kwang Ho.

Using waste products from the forest sector as feedstocks for renewable alternatives to fossil fuels is also a focus of UBC Forestry & Environmental Stewardship Prof. and Canada Research Chair in Advanced Renewable Materials, Scott Renneckar. His research examines the molecular components of lignin and cellulose extracted from plant biomass, particularly from pulp, to identify new pathways for bio-based, high-performance fibres and coatings with applications in the automotive, aerospace and construction industries.

Modelling sustainable bioeconomy processes

Once new technologies pass the initial testing phase and are ready for manufacturing, the essential work of process simulation begins. UBC Forestry & Environmental Stewardship Asst. Prof. of Industrial Ecology, Qingshi Tu, draws from chemical engineering, computer programming and statistical methods to model outcomes of industrial processes. For example, Qingshi could simulate each stage of the life cycle to manufacture a cellulose-based biofilm with potential applications in packaging and fruit preservation, modeling energy consumption, environmental impacts, raw material acquisition and end-of-life treatment.

“As we scale up this work, we can support government and business decision-making on, for example, how much wood is needed in Canada to support our national bio-economy targets.” — Qingshi Tu

The models generated by Qingshi and his Sustainable Bioeconomy Research Group can pinpoint economies of scale in manufacturing, such as how adjustments to the configuration of a chemical plant can influence heat integration and, by extension, energy savings.

“At a very high level, this type of modelling helps with decision-making,” states Qingshi. “We may know that one chemical manufacturing approach has benefits, but by how much? How do those benefits compare to other approaches? Answering these questions is useful towards making technological and process improvements.”

AI is offering additional scaling opportunities for Qingshi’s team, with a goal to make their insights more accessible to companies that want to track their greenhouse gas emissions and additional sustainable bioeconomy yardsticks. The databases and models developed by Qingshi and his team are also open-source, meaning that anyone can access them to evaluate the environmental, economic and social impacts of their operations.

The goal of net-zero emissions

Decarbonizing global economies through reduced carbon emissions – a key contributor to climate change – is now a global movement. The 196 government signatories to the Paris Agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference in 2015 committed to a 45% reduction in emissions from 2010 levels by 2030, or reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. However, the path to achieving the goal is uncertain. Carbon emissions from energy production and industrial activities have increased by 60% since 1992. And most nations around the world continue to fall far short on achieving their carbon reduction commitments, making it virtually impossible to limit global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius and stem catastrophic climate change.

A decarbonization endgame

The Canadian Government launched a Forest Innovation Program in 2012 to spur advances in forest sector decarbonization and sustainability innovations, such as the identification of value-added forest products. A program objective is to put Canada on the map as a hotbed for innovative solutions that move forward emerging sustainable forest management practices and the global bioeconomy.

Commodities, such lumber, plywood, oriented strand board and pulp and paper are biomaterials that could contribute to the bioeconomy, notes UBC Forestry & Environmental Stewardship Assoc. Prof. Christopher Gaston (PhD’97, Forestry), who specializes in markets and economics.

“While these products have been – and still are – dominating the sector, many form the building blocks of higher-value products and/or systems. Conversely, many of the more high-value-adding products cannot economically be manufactured without the simultaneous manufacture of commodities.”

“This is particularly evident in the evolution of pulp and paper mills, which are slowly re-defining themselves as bio-refineries,” Chris adds.

Identified in a recent report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on the future of forestry and wood-based industries as an important contributor towards achieving net-zero carbon emissions, forest products can sequester carbon and act as a natural carbon sink. They can additionally substitute more carbon-intensive materials, such as petrochemicals, cement and metals.

With government regulations such as the Government of Canada’s Pan-Canadian Approach to Pricing Carbon Pollution, becoming more common, carbon pricing, fuel taxes and restrictions on carbon emissions will likely continue to influence changes in the forest sector and global markets.

“There is a strong environmental, social and governance component to work in the space of bio-based materials,” says Scott. “Many companies need to report on their environmental impacts, including their carbon emissions, with these numbers effecting their bottom line.”

“Bio-based materials are still in their nascency,” adds Scott. “We need a great deal of research to delve into the molecular structures of waste materials from forestry, agriculture and chemical production to move the needle on closing the product life cycle and cutting emissions.”

“The coming years will likely see a huge push in this arena, with ample opportunities to contribute to the development and mass-distribution of bio-based materials that are essential if we hope to achieve decarbonization, and reach our sustainability goals and government mandates.”

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This article first appeared in the Winter 2024 issue of Branchlines Magazine. View the full issue here.