USDA Forest Service and P3Nano Collaborative Projects on Cellulose Nanomaterials

During a review meeting at the USDA Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) in Madison, Wisconsin, the USDA Forest Service and the US Endowment for Forestry and Communities and a public-private partnership named P3Nano examined projects in which they had co-invested in 2016 in an effort to fund cellulose nanomaterials research ($4 million total, $2 million from FS, $2 million from the partner). USDA Forest Service and P3Nano worked alongside FPL researchers and university researchers in order to conduct the required research. Three projects were recently announced for continued funding in 2018.  

1. The concrete performance enhancement project team continued their work to discover cellulose nanomaterials which could enhance the strength of concrete and to demonstrate their effectiveness. The team is working with Yreka, California with plans to pour a bridge using the cellulose nanomaterial concrete mixture.
2. Researchers at the University of Maine will continue work to develop a wall covering from cellulose nanomaterials.
3. The third project is a collaboration between Georgia Tech and the Forest Products Laboratory on light weighting glass fiber reinforced polypropylene and epoxy resin composites by coating fiberglass with cellulose nanomaterials to improve strength for automotive composites.