3.+The+Process


 * What Is Liquid Wood?**

Liquid wood is a renewable, natural and nontoxic alterative to plastic. Liquid wood is a biopolymer, which is a material that looks, feels and even acts like plastic but is biodegradable (Colenso 2009). The key ingredient to liquid wood is lignin, which is derived from the wood pulp process (Nelson 2008). 130 million pounds of lignin are produced by the paper and pulp industry each year as a waste product of the paper-making process. The lignin can then be mixed with flax, help or wood fibers and other natural additives such as wax to create a strong bio plastic.

Lignin is part of the natural paper mill process; in fact for many decades this component has been discarded, as lignin is responsible for giving papers a brownish hew. Therefore, high quality paper production eliminates this component. The paper mill process separates the three main components lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose (Nelson 2008). Liquid wood can be used as a substitute for the production of any product that currently uses plastic for production.


 * The Process: How is Liquid Wood made?**

The liquid wood process starts at the paper mill. The process utilizes the once waste of the paper making process. At the paper mill the key components are separated: lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose (Nelson 2008). The lignin is separated with a sulfite based pulping process.

Secondly, depending on the grade and strength of the bio plastic, water, hemp. Flax or wood fibers and other additives such as wax are added. Other additives to determine colour can be added, these are all natural additives. These refined ingredients make plastic like pellets (Nelson 2008). Next, the mixture is exposed to high temperatures and high pressure to create a moldable composite material that's strong and nontoxic. Different molds can be used to make liquid wood bowls to shoes to watches.


 * Developing Nations**

There are numerous pulp and paper mills in South America and parts of Africa. These factories waste their lignin, discarding it, when it has the potential of solving many issues for their country and communities. This waste could be refined using natural additives to make a sustainable substitute for many other their needs, such as shoes. Many developing nations are unable to purchase shoes as they are too expensive. Utilizing the wasted lignin and a fairly simple refining process they could fix many of their needs. This will be discussed further part three: The People.