Geoff Clarke, MBA, MF, RPF
Corporate Planning, Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Inc., Mobile: (780) 689-1775
Edmonton Office: Trail Business Centre, #212, 13220 St. Alberta Trail, Edmonton, Alberta T5L 4W1 Direct: (780) 733-1751
Mill: PO Box 8000, Boyle, Alberta T0A 0M0 Toll Free: (800) 661-5210
Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries continues to be an active participant in the development of the Nano-Cellulose space. Our goal is to open new markets for our core product, pulp, as traditional markets continue to lose ground to electronic media. The forest industry continues to work closely with the R&D community to close the gap between research and commercialization. We expect that through the efforts of all engaged partners that we can advance the technology and build an integrated supply chain. We also need to create market pull. We will accomplish this by improving the value proposition of CNC. We need to improve quality, yields and process integration, which will improve cost competitiveness and continue to enhance and match characteristics to commercial applications that are applicable in Western Canada.
Cellulose Nanocrystals have enormous potential to benefit a multitude of applications in many sectors. This has been a both a strength and weakness in developing commercial applications. Working with the Alberta cluster we have collectively developed a strategy to focus the finite resources on specific sectors and applications that will coordinate efforts and develop the space faster.
Al-Pac expects to complete its due diligence and develop the business case in the near future. At that time it will be positioned to scale up operations if the space is ready.