Before the creation of WURC, a few geographically separated and small research groups in Sweden carried out most of the research on wood ultrastructure as a subsidiary part of their research activities. As a result of the establishment of WURC, the morphological and microscopical resources and knowledge at SLU, earlier mainly directed towards wood as a solid material and its biodegradation, was redirected for studies of wood and fibres for paper production. The specific competence and resources at KTH (Royal Institute of Technology), CTH (Chalmers University of Technology) and STFI (the Swedish Pulp and Paper Institute) were made available for WURC by separate agreements with SLU. Thereby it has been possible to organise, in a proper way, the wood and fibre ultrastructure research in Sweden, which was earlier at low level and dispersed.
The WURC projects are integrated to a certain extent. Research is focused on spruce wood and spruce fibres since this wood species is of great importance for the Swedish pulp and paper industry.
The way WURC is organised promotes an integrated research co-operation between industry and academia. The industrial partners in WURC are directly involved in WURC's research. The research program was approved by the Board following thorough discussions with the Industrial Advisory Group. Furthermore, industrial laboratories are also engaged in WURC's research program by preparing research materials as well as performing analysis and characterisation of fibre materials. Research personnel coming from the industrial companies are active members of the Industrial Advisory Group, belong to various Project Groups and are Industrial mentors for some of the Ph.D students.
In this competence centre the best university and institute resources in wood fibre research in the country have been brought together, their research efforts concentrated, initially on spruce wood and spruce fibres, and a technological/scientific approach adopted for tackling the research tasks. This strategy shall improve the chances for successful research and scientific breakthroughs of the centre.
Project portfoljo Phases 1 & 2
Project portfoljo Phases 2 & 3
All concluded projects
Concluded projects
IFP Pulp 2000
1 Fibre models
2 The Ultrastructure of wood fibre surfaces
4 Fibre chemistry: the ultrastructure of cellulose and hemicellulose
5 Fibre strength of pulp fibres
6 Ultrastructural modification of wood with respect to metal ions
7 Lignin and hemicellulose structures in wood
8 Mechanical interactions between wood polymers and their orientation
in the wood structure
11 The super-molecular chemistry of the cell wall
FP Changes in fibre properties during processing
IFP Effects of refining on wood fibre structure
3 Dislocations in wood fibres
12 Changes in pulp fibre ultrastructure during mechanical treatments and
pulp drying
20 Mechanical properties of hemicelluloses in fibre cell wall matrix
Microbial degradation of pulp wood
2 The Ultrastructure of wood fibre surfaces Part II
9 Ultrastructural studies of wood fibres with specific enzymes
10 Fibre cell wall biosynthesis
15 Mechanical pulp fibres
30 Carbohydrate binding modules
25 Metals in wood
33 Post-harvest changes in wood
19 Fibre chemistry of supra-molecula rnanoaggregates
32 Characterization of lignin from surface cell wall layers
1 Fibre models Part II
14 Molecular modelling