Development of a Eucalyptus Plantation Program in
the Southeastern United States and Higher Elevations
of Southern Brazil – A Status Update
Peter W. Hart: Director Fiber Science, MWV Corp, USA, peter.hart@mwv.com
John Johnson: Sr. Forest Ops Support Analyst, MWV Corp, USA, john.johnson@mwv.com
Ricardo Paim: Research & Tech. General Mgr., MWV Corp, Brazil, ricardo.paim@mwv.com
Abstract
MWV Forestry has been actively pursuing the establishment of cold/frost tolerant eucalyptus
plantations in Southeast Texas and in the higher, frost prone regions of Southern Brazil for several years.
Currently, the major species being examined is E. benthamii. Interspecific crossing efforts, cold tolerance
established from field trials, and inter-country cooperation in this program are discussed. The ability of the
Southeastern Texas program to return value to our collaborators in Southern Brazil and other locations is
reviewed. Pulp and papermaking properties of the cold tolerant species are also reviewed.
Keywords: Eucalyptus benthamii; wood quality; plantation development; cold and frost tolerance.
Introduction
Over the last 8-10 years, considerable effort has been expended in ensuring that the Evadale, TX
mill maintains a reasonable-cost short fiber wood supply. Roughly two-thirds of the pulp produced at the
mill is short fiber. Unfortunately, local hardwood resources are typically located either in swampy bottoms
land which cannot be accessed during wet weather or in the upland hills located some distance away from
the mill which results in excessive transportation costs. Therefore, MWV Forestry groups have been
working with Technical Operations personnel to evaluate the potential of selectively growing short fiber
which will produce good pulp yield and physical properties in reasonable proximity to that mill.
In addition to supplying fiber for the Southeastern Texas mill, efforts are underway in Southern Brazil
to expand the range of eucalyptus plantations into more frost prone, higher elevation areas. Currently, the
MWV Rigesa mill in Santa Catarina, Brazil has a significant amount of higher elevation land which is
unsuitable for the traditional E. dunnii species currently being planted by the mill, due to the relatively
frequent occurrence of frost events in these areas. The mill is in need of another cold/frost tolerant, fast
growing, higher density, good pulp yield and good pulp quality eucalypt species to plant in these areas to
help ensure the long term wood supply for the MWV Tres Barras mill.
Relevant to our expanded species testing for pulp and paper properties is the relatively new and
rapidly expanding eucalyptus plantation effort in the Southeast US [1]. Key to the success of the Southeast
US program will be selection of cold/freeze tolerant species and genetic selection and breeding to further
enhance these traits. At the same time, fiber yield and quality need to be carefully monitored and
incorporated into the breeding and selection effort in order for the US eucalyptus program to be
economically viable and accepted by the industry [2]. Similar concerns are required for the mills in
Southern Brazil [3].
The MWV Southeastern US Eucalyptus Effort
The Eucalyptus benthamii experience
Over the past five years, most of the Southeast US eucalyptus effort has centered on Eucalyptus
benthamii. Several other species, including E. amplifolia, E. macarthurii, E. viminalis, E. dorrigoensis, and
selected land races of E. camaldulensis, have been evaluated and show promise [2]. The cold tolerant
species commonly utilized in more Mediterranean climates such as Chile, Southern Europe, and parts of
South Africa and Uruguay have demonstrated poor adaptation to the hot, humid summer growing conditions
typical of the Southeast US. Included in this group are species such as E. globulus, E. nitens, E. gunnii,
and E. dalrympleana.
E. benthamii is currently serving as the primary “work-horse” species for the near-term in the
Southeast US, even though this species generally does not demonstrate optimum wood and fiber properties
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7th International Colloquium on Eucalyptus Pulp, May 26-29, 2015. Vitória, Espirito Santo, Brazil.
for the pulp and paper industry [2,3].
General bulk seed from existing commercial sources shows
significant variation and does not show the desired per-acre volume yields.
Until 2011, commercial seed available to the Southeast US could only support the planting of
roughly 500 hectares per year. Through intensified orchard and seed production efforts, primarily in Brazil,
E. benthamii seed production can now easily meet the demands of a program 10 to 20 times this size in the
Southeast US, as well as sizeable programs in South Africa, Southern Brazil and several other small efforts
in South America and China.
Work by Nisgoski concluded this species was ideally suited for quality improvements through
selective breeding management [4]. The E. benthamii selection and genetic improvement effort has
progressed rapidly. Several companies, including MWV, will move their planting programs to the level of
half-sibling block plantings by late 2015 or early 2016. We expect this to result in a significant gain in perhectare volume growth, improved tolerance to cold damage, and improved plantation uniformity (and the
operational and harvesting efficiencies associated with greater stand uniformity). The next round of genetic
selection in E. benthamii will look much more closely at wood specific gravity and fiber yield. Presently,
however, our plantations in the Southeast US are too young to initiate a broad-based sampling of E.
benthamii families for wood and fiber properties.
As a species (and as outlined in this paper), we are certain that E. benthamii wood and fiber properties
are inferior to most of the commonly planted humid tropical/subtropical species such as E. grandis, E.
urophylla, E. dunnii, and E. saligna. However, we expect that there is family variability amongst E.
benthamii wood and fiber properties, that these properties are under some degree of genetic control [5], and
that we can capture the best wood and fiber properties through a process of selection, cloning, and
traditional breeding efforts.
Interspecific Crossing Efforts
The Southeast US eucalyptus program has also initiated an aggressive interspecific hybridization
breeding and testing effort.
Interspecific crossing has the potential to enhance growth, improve fiber yield
and quality, as well as improve disease and insect tolerance [6]. Cold tolerance is still recognized as an
absolute necessity in this crossing effort.
The interspecific crossing program is currently limited by availability of the desired “flowering
mothers,” pollen parents, and the typical cumbersome process of importation/exportation of plant materials
across international borders. Until this point in time, the interspecific hybridization effort has been
opportunistic, utilizing the available “mother trees” that exist in the in-door breeding orchards of our company
or other collaborators and the pollen which could be obtained through our internal efforts, from collaborators,
or commercial vendors. To date, several crosses of E. grandis X E. benthamii, E. dunnii X E. benthamii,
and E. benthamii X E. dunnii have been produced and are in greenhouse and field tests in the Southeast
US. Efforts to expand the number of successful crosses and species involved in these crosses are
underway.
Collaboration efforts from outside the US.
The rapid progress of the Southeast US eucalyptus plantation program has been primarily due to
the expertise and resources residing outside of the US, including co-operators and collaborators in South
America, South Africa and Australia. The MWV-US eucalyptus program credits much of its progress to
guidance and training provided by company counterparts at MWV-Rigesa (Santa Catarina, Brazil). MWVRigesa has provided the majority of bulk production seed for the US effort either from their own orchards or
through their contacts with commercial orchards in Southern Brazil. MWV-Rigesa has provided training to
the US program personnel in seedling production, field test design, and all facets of plantation establishment
and culture.
The interspecific hybridization projects to this point have also been heavily dependent upon the
breeding facility and staff at MWV-Rigesa. In many cases, they have provided contacts and sourced
material from other Brazilian and South American companies, universities and government agencies
Returning value.
The Southeast US eucalyptus program will return some value back to MWV-Rigesa, collaborators
in Southern Brazil, and others in cold/frost prone regions of South America. The process of screening for
tolerance to cold events requires that such events occur with some certainty. The Southeast US
experiences such cold events on a regular basis and typically these represent a variety of different types of
cold events, including early and late season frosts, rapid temperature drops, prolonged freezing conditions,
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7th International Colloquium on Eucalyptus Pulp, May 26-29, 2015. Vitória, Espirito Santo, Brazil.
freezing rain, and occasional snowfall. Families and specific clones screened in the US may be a perfect fit
for colder, frost prone areas of Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul and other similar regions of South
America.
Cold Tolerance Tested
After about 5 years of actual tree growth in the Southeastern Texas area, a significant series of cold
events has occurred. Several frosts occurred throughout the winter months. In addition, an artic vortex
reached into the area and temperatures dropped to about -8C during January 6-7, 2014. At one site, the 1
year old trees were completely coated in ice. Other than tree tops snapped off at trunk bifurcations and
some amount of foliage loss, no lasting negative effects were noted in the E. benthamii species planted in
the area. The initial early spring growth was somewhat delayed but reasonable amounts of growth were
still exhibited in the field throughout the summer and fall growing seasons.
Pulp Quality Issues
An important part of the current cold tolerant plantation project in both the Southeastern US and in
the higher elevations of Southern Brazil is ongoing evaluations of the fiber quality produced from the trees
selected for future genetic improvements from the initial rounds of plantings. In addition to selecting
genetic material for wood volume and density production during growing, selected samples have been
harvested and evaluated for pulp fiber yield and strength properties, important to the integrated mills which
will be utilizing the fiber once long term plantations have been established. It has been recognized that the
trees obtained from general bulk seed of commercially available sources of E. benthamii produce pulps with
lower yield and inferior strength properties [2,3]. It has also been realized that there is a significant amount
of variability that is under heritable and genetic control [5]. Therefore, it is expected that specific trees will
exhibit superior fiber yield and strength properties and be available for genetic capture and exploitation
within the plantation system.
High Yield Fiber Requirements.
The mill in southern Brazil is a liner/corrugated board mill which utilizes high kappa number fiber.
Typically, MWV-Rigesa forestry grows E. dunni species as the short fiber source for this mill. As a
comparison, samples of E. dunni and E. benthamii species were cut, chipped and pulped to roughly 70
kappa number and refined in a valley beater. The resulting physical properties of handsheets were
measured at 5 different freeness levels for each species.
Laboratory kraft cooks were performed in a rotary digest er with a capacity of 5 kg wet
chips. The operating conditions used were 2 OD kg of chips, 23% sulfidity with a liquor/wood
ratio of 3.60 to 1 L/kg. A maximum temperature of 155°C was employed with a time to temper
ature of85-90 minutes from room temperature and time at temperature of 40 minutes. Active alk
ali was varied to obtain the desired kappa number of 74+/-6.
Fiber strength was evaluated after refining in a HV-10 Holandesa refiner according to TA
PPI Standard T 200 sp-96 with 5 levels of refining: 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 minutes [7]. After refini
ng, Canadian Standard Freeness was determined for each level and 120 g/m² board-grade
handsheets were made. The handsheets were conditioned at 23 ± 1ºC and 50 ± 2% relative
humidity. Physical tests were performed according to TAPPI standards. Details of the cooking
and testing methods employed and of the specific results are published elsewhere [3]. Selected
results will be reviewed here.
Figure 1 shows the relationship between kappa number and yield for both E. dunni and E.
benthamii pulps prepared in the laboratory. For the range of kappa numbers studied, the E. dunni pulp
had a significantly higher yield than the corresponding E. benthamii pulp. Therefore, significantly less
green tons of E. dunni compared to E. benthamii, would be required to supply the daily production of an
integrated kraft mill.
Industrially, wood quality for kraft pulping is assessed by the following main traits: density, fiber
morphology (coarseness, fiber population, and others), and lignin, extractives and xylan contents. More
recently, wood uronic acids content and lignin syringyl/guaiacyl ratio (S/G) have come into the picture. It is
worth noting that other wood traits such as microfibril angle, cellulose crystallinity, crystal structure, cellulose
and xylan molecular weight distribution, non-process elements (minerals), acetyl group, and others are also
important, but they have not been widely used for wood selection in most forest and pulp and paper
companies. In the sections that follow, the main wood traits are addressed in connection with eucalyptus
kraft pulp production and utilization.
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7th International Colloquium on Eucalyptus Pulp, May 26-29, 2015. Vitória, Espirito Santo, Brazil.
Figure 1. Kappa versus yield relationship for E. dunni and E. benthamii for high yield kraft pulping
conditions.
In addition to pulp yield determination, multiple physical property evaluations were also
conducted. Short span compression, ring crush, concora medium crush, tensile, and tear we re
determined at five different freeness levels. In all cases, the E. benthamii pulp was found to be inferior
in physical properties to the E. dunni fiber. For demonstration purposes, Figure 2 shows the short
span compression comparison of E. benthamii and E. dunni fibers at different high yield kappa numbers
for all five freenesses evaluated. Detailed comparisons of the other physical properties are presented
elsewhere [3].
Figure 2. Comparison of short span compression index of E. dunni and E. benthamii fiber at
multiple freenesses
Bleachable Grade Fiber Requirements
The MWV mill in southeastern Texas, USA is an integrated bleached board (SBS) mill. This mill
currently pulps mixed southern hardwood fiber to 14-18 kappa number. Recently, the mill has experienced
significant difficulties obtaining hardwood for the production of short fiber. In response to this recurring,
potentially long term supply problem, MWV Forestry is investigating the potential for promoting the formation
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7th International Colloquium on Eucalyptus Pulp, May 26-29, 2015. Vitória, Espirito Santo, Brazil.
of eucalypt plantations (primarily with E. benthamii) within a reasonable supply distance of the mill.
Laboratory pulping studies were performed to compare the cooking conditions and physical
properties of bleachable grade E. benthamii with E. dunni. Tree samples were collected from field
plantations, chipped, screened, and pulped in a rotating lab digester to a 15.3 kappa number. Identical
cooking conditions were employed to obtain the same kappa number pulps. A slightly higher yield of about
0.4 percentage points was obtained for E. dunni. The resulting pulps were refined in a valley beater and
sampled at 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20 minutes. Canadian Standard Freeness (CSF), tensile, burst, and STFI
were determined for each sample. Figures 3, 4, and 5 show these physical properties plotted as a function
of CSF. Tensile and STFI values were slightly lower for E. benthamii compared to E. dunni. Burst values
were similar for both species. The difference in physical properties between E. benthamii and E. dunni
were less for the bleachable grade kappa numbers than for the higher kappa number pulps prepared for the
high yield grades discussed above.
Figure 3.
Tensile as a Function of CSF for bleachable grade E. benthamii and E. dunni.
Figure 4.
Burst as a Function of CSF for bleachable grade E. benthamii and E. dunni.
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7th International Colloquium on Eucalyptus Pulp, May 26-29, 2015. Vitória, Espirito Santo, Brazil.
Figure 5.
STFI as a Function of CSF for bleachable grade E. benthamii and E. dunni.
The eucalypts grown in southeast Texas will be used as a portion of the total furnish, not as a pure
species. In order to ensure the viability of eucalyptus as part of a mixed southern hardwood pulp, several
laboratory studies and two mill scale studies were performed. The lab studies pulped increasing
percentages of E. benthamii as part of a mixed hardwood furnish. Cooking conditions such as time and
temperature, and a 17 kappa number target were maintained for each blend. The applied cooking liquor
was varied to obtain the target kappa number for each blend. As the percentage of eucalyptus increased,
the amount of applied cooking chemical was decreased and the residual alkali associated with each cook
also decreased. The screened and total yield increased and the amount of screened rejects decreased
with increased eucalyptus content. Table 1 shows the details associated with these lab cooks. The results
of the lab cooking trials suggests that cooking a blend of mixed southern hardwoods and eucalyptus at any
reasonable partial substitution level should not create a problem with the digester cooking conditions.
Table 1.
Sample
Laboratory Cooking results of Eucalyptus/mixed southern HWD Blends
Total Yield Screen Yield Rejects Kappa
H
AA
%
%
%
Factor
%
Control HWD
44.0
41.7
2.32
17.3
768
21.0
44.4
43.2
1.20
16.6
742
21.0
100% Euc
47.6
47.3
0.34
15.7
732
17.0
46.7
46.5
0.24
16.0
731
17.0
20% Euc/80%Hwd
44.6
44.2
0.36
16.0
739
20.0
46.4
44.5
1.88
16.6
735
20.0
30% Euc/70%HWD
45.9
43.9
2.00
16.3
736
19.0
47.2
46.2
0.96
15.8
732
19.0
40%Euc/60%HWD
45.7
44.3
1.42
16.6
736
18.0
45.7
44.4
2.29
16.6
738
18.0
50%Euc/50% HWD
47.5
45.6
1.91
16.4
730
17.5
46.1
44.6
1.70
16.8
730
17.5
60%Euc/40%Hwd
47.9
46.7
1.20
16.7
729
17.0
48.1
46.3
1.80
16.9
730
17.0
rEA
gpL
8.0
8.1
2.8
2.5
5.6
6.5
5.5
4.7
4.0
3.8
2.8
3.8
2.5
2.6
Because the laboratory trials were successful, two short mill trials were attempted where
eucalyptus chips were substituted for a portion of mixed southern hardwood chips. E. macarthuri grown in
South Carolina and ranging from 8 to 11 years old was harvested from four different operational scale test
plots. The logs were processed within three weeks of harvest at a satellite chip mill and transported by truck
to the MWV mill in Evadale, TX. The first trial consisted of substituting 42% of the mill southern mixed
hardwood chips going to the digester with the eucalyptus chips. The second trial decreased the
substitution level to 33% because of the limited volume of chips available for the trial. The eucalyptus and
mill hardwood chips were mixed at the chip screens and sent to the digester as a blended product. No
changes in the standard mill pulping or bleaching conditions were required to process these blended chips.
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7th International Colloquium on Eucalyptus Pulp, May 26-29, 2015. Vitória, Espirito Santo, Brazil.
Progress to date
Currently, MWV Forestry is managing over 4050 hectares of eucalypt plantings in the Southeastern Texas, Southwestern Louisiana area. Negotiations have been completed with two different
Brazilian E. benthamii seed orchards to provide “top performing, half-sibling families” to be planted as “family
blocks” in the fall of 2015. Texas field trials have been established for various E. amplifolia and newly
developed interspecific hybrid clones of E. grandis x benthamii and E. dunni x benthamii. Several
laboratory pulping studies have been performed and fiber yield and physical properties are in process.
Currently, the E. benthamii being employed in field trials is producing lower quality pulp with respect to both
yield and strength properties, but future plans to select for improvements in these properties are currently
underway.
References
1. Kellison, R.C., Lea, R., Marsh, P., Int. J.Forestry Research, Vol. 2013, Article ID 189393, 9 pages,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/189393.
2. Hart, P.W., Nutter, D.E., Tappi J., 11(7): 29 (2012).
3. Samistraro, G., Hart, P.W., Colodette, J.L., Paim, R., Tappi J., 14(2): 73 (2015).
4. Nisgoski, S., Muniz, G. I. B. de, Klock, U., Ciência Florestal, 8(1): 67 (1998).
5. Quang, T.H., Gyllenstrand, N., Jansson, G., Griffin, R., von Arnold, S., Clapham, D., J. of Tropical
Forest Science, 23(3): 350 (2013).
6. Wingfield MJ, Roux J, Slippers B, Hurley BP, Garnas J, Myburg AA, Wingfield BD, Forest Ecology
and Management, Vol. 301: 35 (2013).
7. Tappi Test Methods: 2000-2001. Tappi Press. Atlanta, USA, (2000).
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7th International Colloquium on Eucalyptus Pulp, May 26-29, 2015. Vitória, Espirito Santo, Brazil.