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In The News

Looming Expiration of Softwood Deal

With less than a year until the expiration of the Canada-U.S. Softwood Lumber Agreement, lines are already being drawn on both sides. Canadian producers would like the agreement extended, but the U.S. would like some changes.

Business Vancouver reported, “The U.S. Lumber Coalition, a lobby group representing American lumber companies and timber owners, said... it’s not going to renew the agreement when it expires next October. It has expressed its anti-deal position to the U.S. government but it has yet to say publicly what it intends to do.”

One of the issues the U.S. has with the current agreement is the claim costs. Washington, D.C., trade lawyer Elliot Feldman said the future is not promising for those wanting softwood peace.

$2 Million for Taller Building Designs

The United States Department of Agriculture is offering a $2 million prize for design ideas to build taller wood structures.

The Tall Wood Building Prize Competi-tion, supported by the Softwood Lumber Board and Binational Softwood Lumber Council, invites U.S. developers, institutions, organizations, and design teams to submit entries that undertake alternative solutions to construct taller timber buildings.

Submissions must showcase the safe application, practicality, and sustainability of a minimum 80-foot structure that uses mass timber, composite wood technologies, and innovative building techniques.

“The objective of the competition is to identify proponents with building project(s) in the concept, schematic, or design development stage in the U.S. that can safely and successfully demonstrate the use of wood as a viable structural material in tall buildings,” the organizers say.

New Versatile Process Efficiently Converts Biomass to Liquid Fuel

Turning chips to liquid fuel may be coming sooner than people think.

Researchers at Purdue University demonstrated a new process that converts all biomass (wood chips, switch grass, corn stover, rice husks, and wheat straw) into liquid fuel. The innovative process — called fast-hydropyrolysis-hydrodeoxygenation — could make mobile processing plants possible.

“The demonstration is a step toward commercialization,” said Rakesh Agrawal, the Winthrop E. Stone Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering. “Because the process can produce hydrocarbons in a single tandem step, it clearly has a potential to have a positive impact on the biofuels sector.”

To read more about the revolutionary method, visit phys.org/news/2014-11-versatile-efficiently-biomass-liquid-fuel.html#jCp.

Homebuilding Recovery to Continue in 2015

Homebuilding continues to look good, especially in the Portland area. At the recent Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland event, economists said they expect building activity to continue creeping higher.

Homebuilding is looking better across the country. The Oregonian reported that: “Using the period from 2000 to 2003 as a benchmark — because the years that followed were so far out of whack — the National Association of Home Builders says construction of single-family houses in the U.S. fell to 27 percent of normal by 2009.

But the pace is expected to recover to 68 percent of normal next year, said Robert Denk, the trade group’s assistant vice president for forecasting. By 2016, it should be back to 90 percent of normal.”