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WOOD PRODUCTS RESEARCH IN OREGON1 

By PHIMISTER B. PROCTOR, Head 

Wood Products Department, School of Forestry 

Oregon State College 

The State of Oregon has every reason to be interested in Forest Products 

Research. Since 1938, Oregon has lead all other States in the production Of 

lumber and forest products. The figure for 1943 7 billion board feet .--

was roughly one-fifth of the total production for the United States. The 

economy of the state is inexorably associated with her forests. Of the total 

land area of slightly over 61,000,000 acres, approximately 48 percent is 

classified as being best adapted to timber cropping. Oregon's present estimated total stand of saw-timber 360 billion feet, log scale is approximately 25 percent of the Nation's total. The leading tree species are Douglasfir, Western hemlock, and ponderosa pine. Approximately 78 percent of the 

saw-timber is found. in the Douglas-fir forests west of the Cascade Mountains; 

and the Douglas-fir forests of the West Coast arc admittedly the most productive in our country. 

According to a recent report by Mr. Burt P. Kirkland of the American Forestry 

Association. The Douglas-fir Region could produce, without drastic changes 

in present forest practices, approximately 13 billion feet of lumber annually 

for the next 20 years and still stay on a sustained yield basis. Re predicts 

a sustained yield of 20 billion feet when all the forests of tho Douglas-fir 

region are brought up to full growing capacity. Thus it seems apparent that 

Oregon will be a leader in forest products for many years, 

Forest products research is not new to Oregon, although an active State 

program was not initiated until recently. The School of Forestry, Oregon 

State College, has been active in research for upwards of twenty years, 

principally in the fields of wood preservation and the seasoning of lumber. 

Several of the trade associations and some of the larger lumber companies 

have also made valuable contributions; as have the various federal agencies 

located within the State. 

Before discussing current accomplishments and future plans for forest products 

research in Oregon, it seems advisable that I outline, in brief, the facilities that have been established for the purpose. Through the active interest 

of certain far-seeing individuals at Oregon State College and the help of the 

more progressive elements of the lumber industry, Oregon passed a law in 1941 

which initiated a State-wide research program, aimed primarily at better 

utilization of waste, or unused forest materials. This project, financed by 

1Paper for presentation before Conference on State and Federal Forest 

Products Research Programs, Madison, Wis., March 18-20, 1946. 

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a biennial budget of $25,000, was associated with the State Board of Forestry 

and the School of Forestry at Oregon State College. The grant was renewed 

in 1943 and increased to $48,000 in 1945. In order to permit more complete 

cooperation with industry and to obtain additional funds for special programs, 

a non-profit corporation, called the Forestry Research Foundation, was formed 

for the purpose of prosecuting applications for patents, protecting and 

developing discoveries made by the Laboratory, and having the right to purchase 

and hold rights to scientific discoveries and to solicit and. receive donations 

for the furtherance of the research program. 

State-wide interest in the research program and the success of projects 

already undertaken has resulted in the approval of a new building to house 

the facilities of the Laboratory. This building, which will be erected as 

soon as suitable bids can be obtained, will be of the industrial type, 

approximately 300' x 60' and costing in the neighborhood of $100,000. 

Approximately half of the space will be devoted to the pilot-plant experiments of the Chemical Engineering Department of Oregon State College, many 

of which will consist of commercial adaptations of experimental processes 

developed in the Oregon Forest Products Laboratory. Industry has generously 

offered to supply approximately $50,000 to augment existing equipment. It 

will take time to obtain all of the necessary equipment but eventually we 

shall have a building fully equipped to conduct experimental work in all 

types of wood utilization. 

At the present time the staff of the Laboratory consists of 3 full-time 

workers and 5 regularly assigned part-time workers, plus several graduate 

students. Full-time workers include a wood chemist, a chemical engineer 

working on carbonization, and a wood technologist. All the staff members 

Of the Wood Products Department of the School of Forestry devote a part of 

their time to Laboratory research. They include a wood technologist-wood 

pathologist, a man trained in wood preservation and seasoning, and one in 

woods waste and sawmill waste problems. The Chemistry Department contributes 

an additional part-time worker and the Dean of the School of Forestry acts as 

the Director. In addition, staff members of other Departments on the campus 

contribute time to certain specialized projects. 

The Act of the State Legislature which established the Oregon Forest Products 

Laboratory is rather specific in directing its activities toward research 

aimed at better utilization of waste materials resulting from the harvesting 

of forest crops and the manufacture of lumber and other wood products. 

However, the policy of the advisory committee has been rather broad and it 

can be expected that the scope of research will be expanded when the more 

important problems of better utilization of "bulk" waste. such as sawdust, 

have Seen solved, In fact, research to improve the utilization of minor 

species has already been approved. 

It is fitting that the Oregon Forest Products Laboratory should be interested 

in waste. At the present time, when a tree is cut, roughly one-third is left 

in the woods as tops, limbs, broken material and partly defective logs. Of 

the remaining two-thirds of the log, approximately one-half goes out the 

"wrong" end of the processing equipment leaving only 35 percent utilization. Work done by the Oregon Forest Products Laboratory, and later expanded 

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by the Forest Service, indicates that 679,744,300 cubic feet of solid wood 

"waste", weighing 9,653,000 tons, bone dry weight, were developed in the 

manufacture of about 10,670,000,000 board feet of lumber at primary sawmill 

operations in Oregon and Washington in 1944. Of this material, about 53 percent was in the form of sawdust and shavings; 47 percent in the form of slabs, 

edgings, and short wood. 

For the sake of more tangible comparisons, the Forest Service has expressed 

the significance of this volume of waste materials in the following form: 

"Total wood by-products weighing 9,653,000 tons bone dry weight are the 

equivalent of 579,180,000 gallons of alcohol at 60 gallons per ton of wood 

waste plus 2,413,250 tons of lignin at 500 pounds per ton plus another 

579,180 tons of fodder yeasts at 120 pounds per ton." Putting it another 

way, 4,538,000 tons of coarse waste, bone dry, would yield about 2,000,000 

tons of well-screened pulp at 45 percent recovery; or at 90 percent recovery, 

over 4,000,000 tons of fiber for the production of insulating and wall boards. 

Four million tons of fiber would yield nearly 4,000,000 sq. ft. of two-inch 

insulating board weighing 13 pounds per cubic foot of board. 

Since the material listed above is now largely unused in the milling centers 

outside of Portland, other than for fuel, the efforts of the Laboratory have 

been directed toward more complete, and more profitable, utilization of 

present waste by-products of the lumber industry. Time does not permit a 

complete description of the accomplishments of the Laboratory to date but 

the following examples are illustrative of the work being done. 

The production of charcoal from sawdust or hogged wood, for use as domestic 

fuel or even metallurgical fuel, offered one possibility for the utilization 

of sizable amounts of sawmill waste. A pilot-plant in operation at the 

Laboratory for over a year has produced encouraging results. It has shown 

that a good quality of charcoal can be made from Douglas-fir sawdust, and 

that A satisfactory briquette can be formed by mixing charcoal with water 

and using some of the derived tars as a binder. Preliminary calculations 

indicate that the briquettes can be produced at a cost that will be competitive with other fuels and steps are being taken to determine the changes 

required. to convert from pilot-plant to commercial operation. Preliminary 

calculations have not included the possible value of the resultant tars and 

distillates obtained as by-products. With proper auxilliary equipment, as 

much as 1 pound of settled tar has been obtained. to 4 pounds of charcoal. 

Yields of up to 14.5 percent of tar acids and phenols have been obtained 

from distillation of the settled tar. It is too early to make predictions 

but it is possible that improved utilization of wood tars may make tar the 

most important product of wood distillation, thereby reducing the cost of 

charcoal and providing a profitable use for sawmill waste. Studies are now 

in progress to determine the physical properties of the acids, as well as 

their chemical identification. 

Another use for sawdust that has shown some promise is the compounding of 

a finishing plaster made from wood flour. This project, which was halted 

during the war for lack of manpower, is to be reopened in the near future. 

At the tine the project was dropped the plaster showed possibilities of 

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being applied to plywood surfaces with ordinary spray equipment at a cost 

comparing favorably with that of building plaster. It is indicated that this 

product may be satisfactory for the interior finish of prefabricated housing 

units. 

The ethyl alcohol plant nearing completion at Springfield, Oregon has opened 

up a number of research possibilities. The production of the primary product 

is, in itself, based on the utilization of sawmill waste. Originally designed 

to produce approximately 10,000 gallons of industrial. ethyl alcohol per 24­

hour day from 220 tons of wood waste, dry weight, improved techniques, 

developed largely through the pilot-plant experiments conducted at the 

Madison Laboratory, indicate that production can be increased to approximately 

15,000 gallons per day, using upwards of 350 tons of wood waste. Not only 

has plant efficiency been improved, but yields have been increased from 

approximately 50 gallons of alcohol per ton of dry wood to over 60 gallons. 

In addition to the 1200-1500 pounds of wood sugar produced for each ton of 

dry wood, there will be a total daily accumulation of "waste" by-products 

from this utilization of waste wood amounting to about 70 tons of lignin, 

18 tons of calcium sulphate sludge, and over 5,000,000 gallons of residual. 

liquor which contains about 1-1/2 percent reducing sugars. 

These by-products present disposal problems at the present time but also 

offer challenging opportunities for research and development. Whereas 

research on the alcohol phases of the program have been conducted under 

the direction of the Madison Laboratory, the Oregon Forest Products Laboratory has played a major part in examining the possibilities for utilizing 

the waste by-products. Only a meager start has been made on some of these 

problems, due primarily to lack of funds and personnel during the war years, 

but increased activity is now anticipated. 

The operating plan for the alcohol plant calls for the lignin to be dried 

and burned in the boilers; a return of 0.01 cent per pound. It is indicated 

that a market for lignin at even one cent per pound would reduce the alcohol 

cost by ten cents per gallon. Therefore, we have been intensely interested 

in this phase of the problem, Preliminary studies have indicated that the 

waste lignin can be carbonized by controlled pyrolysis for the production of 

charcoal and the manufacture of briquettes. The tars and extractives from 

this process are being studied and some of them appear to be of sufficient 

interest to warrant further investigation. Work on the analysis of the 

pyroligneous acid for dissolved tar, acetic acid, and methanol is in progress. 

Possible use as a plant fertilizer and soil stabilizer also offered good 

prospects for the extensive use of rather large quantities of waste lignin, 

Results have not been very encouraging but the experiments will be continued 

until all aspects of the problem have been explored. Results of experiments 

dealing with the use of ground lignin as an extender for insecticidal dusts 

appear to offer more promise, but the work has not passed the preliminary 

stages of investigation. Our studies of the possibilities offered by lignin 

as a plastic moulding compound and as an extender for synthetic resin glues 

are in the same category, The recent return of qualified personnel will 

permit resumption of work on several aspects of lignin research which were 

temporarily abandoned during the war. 

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Going to the next major by-product of the alcohol plant, it has been found 

that Scholler gypsum, that is, the calcium sulphate residue, is equal to 

agricultural landplaster for use on soils. Green house and sample plot 

tests have been completed. Large scale field tests are planned with the 

actual product from the Springfield plant when sufficient supplies are 

available. With an available annual market in Oregon of about 9,000 tons 

at $14.00 to $15.00 per ton, profitable disposition seem assured. 

The 5,000,000 gallons of still bottom liquor produced daily presents a 

serious disposal problem. The problem is being attacked in two ways: first, 

the possibility of growing feeding yeast on the pentose sugars, thereby 

removing sonic of the materials that contribute to stream pollution and, 

second, in cooperation with the Bacteriological Department at Oregon State 

College, methods for creating suitable sewage disposal facilities. Since 

the exact nature of the still bottom liquors will not be known until the 

plant is in operation, it is difficult to predict the exact type of biological community that will be required to effect the desired decomposition. 

Nevertheless, cultures of many types are being tested on samples of still 

bottom liquor obtained from the pilot-plant at Madison to determine their 

efficacy in this connection. The feasibility of producing furfural and 

acetic acids are being examined rather critically, as are other forms of 

fermentation for the production of acetone, butyl alcohol, lactic acid, 

butylene glycol and citric acid. 

Leaving the alcohol plant, our projects deal with more direct applications 

of wood. waste utilization. Interest in the manufacture of fiber boards 

from mechanically-produced fiber, from either chips or slabwood, is gaining 

considerable impetus. In one cooperative project we have assisted in working out the details for forming resin impregnated shells, or cabinets, for 

home freezing units, made entirely from mechanical fiber produced from waste 

wood. The reduction in supplies of high-grade peeler logs has also focused 

attention on the use of fiber overlays of several different types to replace 

costly face veneers. In order to be in a position to supply information on 

this subject, we have recently inaugurated a rather extensive project to 

determine the best means of refining mechanical fiber. This type of use 

offers prospects of utilizing large amounts of waste. 

The better use of Oregon hardwoods and minor coniferous species has also 

come under consideration. The present heavy demand for poles has created 

an active interest in lodgepole pine. While the Forest Service is working 

on tho forest management and transportation problems which attend the 

utilization of this species, the Oregon Forest Products Laboratory is 

cooperating with several industries in matters of improved methods of 

preservation, as well as examining the possibility of producing pulp and 

mechanical fiber. Other minor coniferous species will be considered as 

time permits. Oregon has approximately 4 billion feet of hardwoods, 

principally red alder, oaks, and bigleaf maple. Virtually nothing is 

known concerning the management of these species and mill, grade, and 

seasoning studios are badly needed. In cooperation with several mill 

operators, initial steps have been taken for a study to determine optimum 

drying procedures for Oregon white oak, tan oak, and California black oak. 

Grade studies will follow. There is no doubt that the utilization of Oregon 

hardwoods can be materially expanded and it is possible that new industries 

can be developed. 

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In cooperation with the West Coast Lumbermen's Association we have also 

embarked on an ambitious program of determining optimum kiln-drying conditions for Douglas-fir, hemlock, and the other more important species. 

Schedules are pretty well worked out. More detailed studies are needed to 

perfect refinements, improve product quality, and. reduce drying costs. Our 

current project deals with the air velocities required to dry 2-inch common 

Douglas-fir and 1-inch hemlock to determine the point at which power costs 

for high velocities reach the point of diminishing returns. 

While the primary function of the Laboratory deals with the increased 

utilization of waste resulting from manufacturing processes, experience has 

shown that the problem of better utilization of woods waste cannot be entirely 

divorced from the more immediate problems confronting the Laboratory. In 

view of this a certain amount of time has been devoted, in cooperation with 

several lumber and pulp companies, in attempting to recover more values from 

logging operations and to devise equipment and methods for doing so. 

To date, lack of space and equipment have prevented research in the fields 

of pulp and paper, plywood, laminates, adhesives and bonding , wood preservation, wood stabilization, and other projects. Completion of a new building 

in the very near future will permit expansion into a number of these fields 

if the demands of local industries justify increased activity along these 

lines. 

The keynote of the entire Oregon Forest Products Laboratory research program 

has been cooperation, Because of limited funds it has been necessary to 

marshall all available forces into a full cooperative effort and wherever 

possible, to avoid duplication of research; particularly that being pursued 

by other public agencies. On the Oregon State Campus the Departments of 

Wood Products, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and 

Agricultural Engineering have all. contributed. Graduate students have been 

used when available, under supervisions of members of the College and Laboratory Staffs. The Bonneville Power Administration, The Pacific Northwest 

Forest and Range Experiment Station, the Madison Laboratory, The West Coast 

Lumbermen's Association, the Portland Gas and Coke Company, The Willamette 

Valley Wood Chemical Company, and the lumber industry have all made definite 

contributions in certain studies, and plans for more intensive cooperation 

with industry are shaping up rapidly. 

The Oregon Forest Products Laboratory is committed to a policy of concentrating on practical research designed to solve the immediate problems of 

Oregon's forest products industries. This does not preclude the advisability 

of engaging in some basic research but, for the most part, the Federal agencies, with their greater resources are in a better position to sponsor longterm and costly projects, 

Because of the vast amount of work that remains to be done it seems to me 

essential that full cooperation between public agencies, and, in so far as 

possible, the elimination of duplication of effort should be stressed to the 

limit. It is my hope that from this meeting will come a concrete plan for 

the interchange of information between public research agencies, and a conscientious effort on tho part of all concerned to avoid duplicating work 

which can be accomplished more efficiently by another organization having 

specialized equipment and personnel, 

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