INTERNATIONAL INNOVATION
FINLAND
PRODUCTION STARTS OF LIGNIN-BASED CARBON MATERIALS FOR BATTERIES
Pilot production of Lignode® by Stora Enso, wood-based carbon for batteries, is currently being ramped up. Applications include electric vehicles and consumer electronics as well as large-scale energy storage systems. The global battery market is projected to grow tenfold over the next decade as battery producers seek more sustainable materials for the electrification of mobility. Since sustainability is becoming a top priority for the automotive industry, car manufacturers and battery producers are focusing heavily on reducing carbon emissions in electric cars. Today, fossil-based carbon is used in the anodes of rechargeable batteries. By converting lignin separated from wood into carbon-based anode materials, the synthetic and non-renewable graphite material can be replaced. The pilot plant for bio-based carbon materials is located at Stora Enso’s Sunila production site in Finland, where lignin has been industrially produced since 2015. The biorefinery’s annual lignin production capacity is 50 000 tonnes.
USA
UAV LiDAR TO INFORM CARBON EMISSION REDUCTION POLICY MAKING
A specialist team at the University of Wiconscin-Madison (UW-Madison) used the Routescene UAV LiDAR system to detect and visualize forests in Northern Wisconsin, USA as part of the CHEESEHEAD project. The objective of this wider project is to improve weather forecasting by understanding further how vegetation and forests influence the atmosphere. This information will be used by decision makers to develop policies which more effectively enable carbon emission reductions. The aim of the CHEESEHEAD project (The Chequamegon Heterogeneous Ecosystem Energy-balance Study Enabled by a High density Extensive Array of Detectors) is to study interactions and feedbacks between the land surface and atmosphere and how these results can be used to improve weather and climate models. Ultimately the results will enable better carbon emission reduction policy making. The UW-Madison team collected high density 3D point cloud data of the prominent tree species in the ChequamegonNicolet National Forest, USA. Routescene’s LiDAR system mounted on a drone can capture the full tree structure from the tree canopy to the vegetation at ground
UAV LiDAR point cloud of area around flux tower level. This survey was part of a wider project to understand how water, heat and carbon interact across a variety of landscapes like forests. The Routescene LiDAR system includes
28 FORESTRY & TIMBER NEWS • August 2021
a 32-laser LiDAR sensor providing a scan rate of up to 1.4 million points per second. Point cloud density averaged 600 points per meter squared with a vertical accuracy of 2-5cm.
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