Natural Resources Canada Friday announced a $10-million investment in innovation at Cascades Canada’s Norampac-Cabano mill in Témiscouata-sur-le-Lac, QC. Under the project, funded as part of NRCan’s Investments in Forest Industry Transformation (IFIT) program, Cascades will extract hemicellulose from hardwood chips through a new, hot water–based pulping process. The naturally occurring hemicellulose — a polymer in plant cell walls that connects lignin and cellulose fibres — can be sold as concentrated sugars used in the creation of biofuels.
