With bark

Huntsman Polyurethanes in Everberg (Belgium) has been invited to join the Bark Biorefinery Consortium Project, a four-year joint venture between academia and industry that is exploring how best to extract value from tree bark that is a forest residue left over by the lumber industry.
The collaborative research program is being funded by the Province of Ontario together with participating institutions and industry partners. As part of consortium activities, representatives from Huntsman's CoreScience unit in the United States will work closely with scientists from the University of Toronto, who are leading the project.
Leveraging combined academic and commercial know-how, the Huntsman team will focus on one core element of the initiative: converting bark into value added intermediates for polyurethane to achieve improved properties and more renewable content. Previous research in this area has shown that incorporating bark products into other polymers can result in improved thermal stability and fire resistance, as well as improved adhesive properties.