Rosin and Terpenes from Pine

The production of resin acids and terpenes from pine stump extraction and the distillation of tapped gum (oleoresin), sulfate turpentine, and kraft tall oil are equal to or greater than the existing markets, most of which continue to show marginal declines. The net results are depressed pricing and a somewhat cloudy future, particularly for tall oil rosin, which is faced with changing technology in one of its major end-uses - paper-sizing additives. 

Despite the electronic communications revolution, paper production continues to grow worldwide at a rate of 2% to 3% annually. Much of the incremental increase is based on pine because no other long-fibered softwood offers such high yield rates per hectare coupled with a short growth cycle. New kraft pine pulpmills and most existing mills will continue to practice tall oil recovery because non-removal of tall oil soap from kraft black liquor adversely affects evaporator and recovery boiler capacity (14). Increased tall oil production has been accompanied by new fractionator capacity in Europe and incremental expansion in the United States. Since the paper industry is the largest user of rosin size, it might be expected that the increased paper production would absorb the increased availability of tall oil rosin. 

Producers of rosin size have developed modified emulsions that permit a lower net addition of rosin derivatives per ton of paper. Furthermore, there is a rapidly 

The only answer, therefore, seems to be development of new markets. Gonick (16) points out that the rosin business amounts to approximately a 0.5 billion annually, yet there is probably less than 1 % of sales spent on research and development. Since the profitability of the rosin business is being strongly impacted by the inroads of alternate materials from the chemical industry, he believes three courses of action are necessary 1) significant increases in research and development must be made to lower processing costs and improve products 2) new growth markets must be sought and cultivated and 3) markets for rosin-based products must be diversified into more specialized end-uses that will be less prone to entry by alternate materials. 

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