A Fundamental Review of the Relationships between Nanotechnology and Lignocellulosic Biomass - The Nanoscience and Technology of Renewable Biomaterials - page 22

3. assuring an ecologically sustainable, affordable domestic supply of wood and fiber
feedstock.

The roadmap's purpose is to provide the research community, and their funding organiza-
tions, with information on the technical challenges and research needs that are considered
priorities by the US forest products industry. The roadmap's goal is to stimulate col-
laborative, precompetitive research, development, and deployment that will provide the
foundation for new technology-driven business models that enable the industry to meet
competitive challenges, while also contributing solutions to strategic national needs.
It envisions that the revitalized forest products industry will be built on four corner-
stones:

• significantly improved productivity through lower costs and higher yields for raw

materials and manufactured products;

• upgraded technical skills of the workforce;

• a stream of new biomass-derived products and materials, including electric power,

liquid transportation fuels, polymers and composites, and industrial chemicals;

• adding value to society by reducing emissions and effluents and by providing essential

products from renewable and sustainable raw materials.

The industry roadmap also envisions that it will use and rely heavily on emerging
technologies, such as biotechnology and nanotechnology, coupled with breakthrough
advances in manufacturing process technologies to create and capture value from both
new and existing product streams efficiently, cleanly, and economically. Further, the
roadmap strategy identifies what the forest products industry sees as its inherent strengths:
stewardship of an abundant, renewable, and sustainable raw material base and a manu-
facturing infrastructure that can process wood resources into a wide variety of consumer
products. The industry also views itself as uniquely positioned to move into new, growth
markets centered on bio-based 'green' products. The seven industry technology goals
or technology platforms for its reinvention are as follows:

• Advancing the forest 'bio-refinery' - transform existing manufacturing infrastructure

to develop geographically distributed production centers of renewable 'green' bioen-
ergy and bioproducts. Double the return on net assets of existing forest products
manufacturing plants by applying technologies that extract new value prior to pulping
and produce new, commercially attractive products and power from wood residuals
and spent pulping liquors.

• Sustainable forest productivity - develop and deploy wood production systems that

are ecologically sustainable, socially acceptable, energy-efficient, and economically
viable to enhance forest conservation and the global competitiveness of forest product
manufacturing and biorefinery operations in the US.

• Breakthrough manufacturing technologies - develop and apply 'breakthrough'

approaches that can achieve revolutionary changes in the manufacturing process to
significantly lower energy and materials costs by reducing raw material, fiber, and
energy use and by enhancing fiber functionality.

• Advancing the wood products revolution - revolutionize housing and construction by

creating superior, low-cost, high-value, sustainable wood products and wood-based
building systems.