With the help of SUNY-ESF, the Wellsville Campus of Alfred State College is about to be crowned with a biorefining jewel.

In a collaboration amongst numerous educational institutions across the United States, including SUNY-ESF, steps are being taken toward the creation of a Biorefinery Development and Commercialization Center (BDCC).

In essence, the purpose of the BDCC is to put into practice a revolutionary process that extracts useful chemicals found in wood, while leaving the wood intact for other uses. Once extracted, the chemicals can be used to create an array of environmentally friendly products including biodegradable and compostable plastic, food additives and glues.

“We are offering refining technology that is clean, green, and environmentally safe,” said Preston Gilbert, senior researcher at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

The extraction method to be used at the BDCC was developed at SUNY-ESF and is known as Hot Water Extraction (HWE).

Patented by Biorefinery Research Institute Director Thomas Amidon, the process has been deemed viable in a pilot scale. The next step is an intermediate scale-up on the Wellsville Campus of Alfred State College. This will eventually turn into a research facility, pioneering the launch of numerous full-scale commercial biorefineries across New York state.

“This project is essential to expedite the commercializing of the technology,” Amidon said.

Commercialization will lead to what is known as the “New Forest Economy,” an assimilated cluster of businesses and industries that would rely on products produced at the biorefinery.

As for the Alfred State location, resources and history are the driving factors. The abundance of wood available in western New York can be used as a feedstock to support the facility, Gilbert said.

“The geographic history brings all the more reason to place the BDCC in Wellsville,” he said. “The regional attitude towards refining is 150 years old, refining is something they feel comfortable doing.”

This month, New York State Sen. Catharine Young (R-NY) secured $1 million for the BDCC. Once the necessary $13 million is secured to fund the project, it will take about 18 months to build.

“For hundreds of years, those forests and fields have provided economic sustenance to our people,” Young said. “Now, it’s time to take those resources to a new level.”

Christopher Wood, one of the leaders of the BDCC project and a graduate student studying paper engineering at SUNY-ESF, has been involved with biorefinery since he was a junior in high school.

One of his main roles is researching how to take carbon sugars and convert them into industrial chemicals.

In the future, Gilbert plans to further student involvement.

“Our hope is that various undergraduate and graduate programs at ESF and Alfred State College will have a hand in the ongoing work in the research and commercial facility,” Gilbert said.

Once the center is built, Gilbert said he hopes it will spur economic activity in the area.

Gilbert added that the researchers are creating a market for the wood, which is native to New York. This use of the wood will in turn make more jobs.

For each commercial facility built, at least 40 direct jobs will be created along with an additional 60 to 100 secondary jobs per biorefinery.

“The fabrication of products will lead to the displacement of similar imports being processed in Asia, bringing those jobs back to New York state,” said Gilbert.

Published on September 27, 2015 at 8:47 pm

Contact Taylor: tnwatson@syr.edu