Wood damaged by bark beetles can replace cotton in healthcare

Forest that has died after being attacked by bark beetles. Photo: Mostphotos/Ondrej Vladyka

Since the hot summer of 2018, the bark beetle has become a real problem for forestry in southern and central Sweden. Every year around ten million cubic metres of timber are damaged in Sweden alone. After this year's warm start to the summer, it is likely that the problems will increase further. Throughout Europe around 100 million cubic metres of timber are damaged per year. Even in America this is a big problem. Today, almost all of this wood is burned at a low value, with the forest owner having to remove the infested tree within a short time after the attack to reduce the spread.

New material for textile fibres and biofuel

Joseph Samec.
Photo: Niklas Björling

Now, however, there may be new uses for wood damaged by bark beetles. Joseph Samec and Aji Mathew, professors of chemistry at Stockholm University, lead a project within the framework of a research program run by Region Stockholm, Stockholm University and Mistra SafeChem with the goal of creating a textile fibre that can replace cotton products in healthcare from bark-beetle-damaged wood.

The researchers within the project have recently published a scientific article where they show that bark-beetle-damaged wood can generate high-quality fibre. This fibre can replace cotton for several functions within, among other things, healthcare. At the same time, it is possible to produce environmentally friendly (green) chemicals that can be used in the chemical industry or as biofuel, for example for air transport. A chemical innovation can enable new areas of application for the damaged wood.

“By using a residual stream, with a low value, it turned out that the environmental impact of the generated fibre from bark-beetle-damaged wood was significantly lower than cotton regarding, among other things, water consumption, climate change, land use and resource use. The results have a positive impact on 10 of the UN's 17 global goals for sustainable development”, says Joseph Samec.

Creating textile fibre that can replace cotton products

Kuntawit Witthayolankowit with the new raw material.

If the technology is implemented in Europe, there is, according to Joseph Samec, the potential to produce 15 million tons of textile fiber and 4 million tons of green chemicals.
“15 million tons of textile fibre corresponds to almost 60 percent of cotton production and thus 20 million hectares of fertile agricultural land could be freed up for food production. This without felling trees that would not have remained in the forest anyway.”

The research project is financed by Region Stockholm, Mistra SafeChem and the Swedish Energy Agency. Other parties that participate are Mellanskog and Skogforsk for the raw material used; Södersjukhuset and Textilia as claimants; Aditya Birla Group which is the world's largest textile manufacturer, Borås Textile University to spin and evaluate the fibre for textiles; University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, to evaluate the hydrocarbons and University of Padova for life cycle analysis calculations.

Read the scientific article in Chemical Engineering Journal

Read more on Mistra SafeChem's website: Damaged wood can become raw material for clothing