# Presentation: 582150

## Forest Products Laboratory

## Mission

- through science and technology,
- thereby contributing to the
- conservation and management
- of the forest resource

***Mission***

## Advanced HousingResearch Center

***An Initiative for Advancing Technology in Housing***

## Advanced Housing Research Center

***Emphasis areas***
**Moisture management and indoor ****air quality**
**Improved use of traditional wood products**
**Recycled and engineered wood composites**
**Energy efficiency**
**Environmental performance**
**Natural disaster resistance **
**Improved durability of finishes and sealants**

## Research demonstration house

**Notes:**
Our newest structure is our Research Demonstration House, built in partnership with the Southern Pine Council, APA—The Engineered Wood Association, and the Advanced Housing Research Center at FPL. 
All phases of construction were videotaped to document building practices in conjunction with the “Build a Better Home” partnership.
It is both a laboratory and a showcase of innovative building materials.

## Composite shingles

**Notes:**
One of these materials is the composite roof shingle, which is made from recycled milk jugs and industrial waste wood. 
The shingles will be monitored, and it is hoped that they will have a service life of 50 years. 
A company in Baraboo, WI, produced these shingles and will soon be producing them commercially.

## Engineered wood products

**Notes:**
The full basement permanent wood foundation is being installed; Len Lenzmeier from Windsor. 

## Finger-jointed stud

**Notes:**
Southern pine finger-jointed studs are also featured in the interior walls of the house.
This engineered product finds a structural use for small pieces of lumber that otherwise would be discarded. 
Even builders are impressed with this straight material.

## Access board

**Notes:**
The Americans with Disabilities Act has made playground accessibility a priority for all children and parents whether they are in wheelchairs, on crutches, or using walkers. The access board in front of the garage is being tested for playground use.
The loosely piled wood chips that traditionally provide ground cushioning are difficult to navigate with a wheelchair or walker. 
Other options, like bonded rubber or synthetic foam, are substantially more expensive. 
FPL’s alternative binds the top layer of wood chips together into a mat with materials like silicone, polyurethane, and latex. 
This engineered wood fiber is cost-effective, cushions falls and impacts, and provides a smooth surface for wheelchairs/walkers.

## Testing

**Notes:**
Our Engineering Mechanics Lab conducts tests on this reclaimed wood in order to establish grading criteria.
These criteria will help establish a grade stamp for reclaimed lumber, verifying its quality and increasing its value.
One of our partners is Habitat for Humanity. The money raised from the sale of this material is used to build homes for needy families. 

## Slide 11

## Current market values for small-diameter trees

- Cost
- to
- Harvest

## Forest Service Log-Sort Yard

*Concessionaire is local community*

**Notes:**
Diagram shows the hierarch of uses for small diameter material.  Goal is to move a greater percentage than currently used into the value-added use category because this is where the greatest return will occur.  However, the entire quality and size distribution of material needs to be considered, including low value uses such as energy.  FPL works with entrepreneurs and small businesses to help them identify uses for all their raw material.

## Roundwood components

**Notes:**
Small-diameter roundwood was used for the main structural components of this kiosk. 

## Connectors

**Notes:**
Dowel nut connectors were used in the small-diameter demonstration structure.
Powder-driven connectors are presently being researched. Unlike the factory-drilled dowel nut connectors, these have the potential to be used on the construction site.

## 2002 Winter Olympics kiosks

**Notes:**
Two information kiosks were constructed for the 2002 Winter Olympics. 
The kiosks will continue to be used as information centers in Oregon and Utah.

## High-value products

**Notes:**
Finding higher valued uses for this small-diameter material is another way of getting this material out of the forests.
 This desk is an example of a higher end product using Douglas-fir. 

## Flooring

**Notes:**
The house also features flooring made from small-diameter Douglas-fir. 
These value-added products offset the cost of thinnings needed to improve forest health. 
In addition, forest-dependent rural communities get an economic boost when profitable uses for small-diameter materials are found. 

## Juniper

**Notes:**
Add to this the problem of Juniper in the southwestern United States that is low in value and overabundant. 
FPL’s solution—juniper signs made from recycled plastic and all parts of the juniper tree. 
The porcupines do NOT like the juniper and the bullets fly right through them.

## Water filtration

**Notes:**
Juniper, along with other species, can be used to make filters that clean contaminants from water. 

## Acid mine waste

**Notes:**
Children in this area often draw pictures of streams with an orange color.
By using FPL’s filters, future generations of children may be able to use a blue crayon for streams.

## New York City watershed

**Notes:**
The filters are very effective when placed at the source of the phosphates (milk houses). 

## Polyoxometalates (POMs)

**Notes:**
Traditional methods of bleaching pulp for paper use large amounts of water and energy. They also generate chlorinated hydrocarbons and large volumes of wastewater. 
Researchers have developed a new bleaching method that reduces the impact on our environment. The method uses polyoxometalates (POMs), an inorganic enzyme analog, to bleach pulp. 
POM bleaching is not chlorine based, so it creates nothing more than carbon dioxide and water as byproducts. POMs are reusable and can bleach pulp without damaging the fibers.
This new method also gives paper mills the ability to bleach small-diameter and mixed-species pulp, which has not been possible until now. 

## BioMax

*Small scale energy demonstration*

## BioMax

**Current prototypes produce ****5 to 15 kW of electricity and ****up to 50 kW of useful heat**
***GOAL***
*Produce up to 100 kW of electricity*

## Conserving the forest resource

**Notes:**
For over 90 years, FPL has been researching ways to conserve the forest resource. From the components of your house and the paper you write on to our watersheds and forests, we are dedicated to continuing this mission.