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| Oregon researchers explore 'aroma tags' for lumber |
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2006/1/18
CORVALLIS --Timber researchers hope to create wood sniffers that could track lumber from forest to front-room furniture the way bloodhounds track criminals -- by their scent.
The devices are still in the imagination of their developers. They could allow the timber industry to certify that individual products come from woods managed in an environmentally sound way. They could make it harder to move pirated logs, reducing theft and illegal logging. Or they could help the industry be better at marketing and management.
Glen Murphy, a forest engineering professor at Oregon State University, says he envisions an electronic "wood hound." Lumber would be tagged with scents such as the three perfumery chemicals he's been using on wood samples from cedar, ponderosa pine and hemlock trees.
So far, the $8,000 device he's using can track one distinct scent, but it can't deal with combinations of more.
Five years from now, Murphy hopes to be able to track 25 aromas in various combinations. That would allow timber trackers to tag more than 33 million logs with a unique scent for each, he said.
"Ideally, we want to track from standing tree to piece of wood on a desk," he said. "That's where we want to go. A smell is like a fingerprint."
The industry now uses metal staples or plastic tags that play hob with pulp mill and sawmill machinery. The alternative is radio frequency tags, which are expensive.
"One of the challenges the forestry industry faces is being able to track products through the supply chain," Murphy said.
Murphy has been exploring the possibility since 2000. Along with Robert Franich from the New Zealand Forest Research Institute, Murphy published a study in the February 2004 issue of Forest Products Journal exploring the idea.
Each year 1.5 billion cubic meters of timber are harvested worldwide-- 5 billion to 15 billion logs, Murphy said.
A truckload of about 50 logs can cost upward of $2,000, so timber manufacturers want to keep close tabs on their merchandise.
Murphy said a wood sniffer system sould have to be inexpensive and able to withstand harsh climates, difficult transportation conditions and treatments such as sawing, varnishing and staining. Murphy is looking for grant money from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service, the Oregon Department of Forestry and private timber companies.
Some markets already use aroma tagging. The food industry relies on electronic noses to measure freshness, the medical and dental professions can use it to detect disease, and natural gas companies find it helpful in isolating leaks.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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| Source:http://www.tdn.com/articles/2006/01/15/biz/news02.txt |
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