The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Air Quality (DAQ) is accepting public comment on a draft air quality permit modification for Columbia Plywood Corp.—Columbia Carolina Division, the company’s plywood manufacturing facility in Old Fort, NC.

If approved, the modification would allow Columbia Plywood to install an air curtain incinerator unit from AirBurners at the facility to burn its wood waste for disposal—increasing potential emissions thresholds, thus requiring a Title V air quality permit.

AirBurners incinerators, branded as FireBox, were designed principally as a pollution control device for open burning. The primary objective of an air curtain machine is to reduce the particulate matter, which results from burning clean wood waste. Using a technology called “air curtain,” the smoke particles are trapped and reburned, reducing them to an acceptable limit per EPA guidelines.

Hexion, a leader in adhesives, systems, and AI technologies for wood panel manufacturing, announced a partnership with Bloom Biorenewables, a Swiss startup, which has developed a breakthrough method for preserving the natural adhesive properties of lignin, according to a Hexion statement. The companies seek to commercialize a renewable, high-performance alternative to synthetic adhesives.

Bloom has reportedly developed a unique and cost-effective process for extracting native lignin, a naturally occurring adhesive found in wood, while maintaining its chemical structure. This is a significant scientific achievement: traditional methods for isolating lignin typically cause it to condense, destroying the reactive groups responsible for its adhesive strength and rendering it unsuitable for industrial use, according to Hexion. Bloom’s method uses low-cost aldehydes during the extraction process to protect these critical chemical groups. As a result, the company can recover high-quality, uncondensed lignin at commercial scale—“an industry first.”

This innovation opens the door to a new class of 100% plant-based adhesives that combine strong bonding performance while also being environmentally friendly. Not only are these adhesives safer for people and the planet, but they also help manufacturers extract up to 80% more value from the same wood feedstock by using parts of the tree that would otherwise be wasted.

“For decades, the industry has operated under the assumption that strong performance and full renewability couldn’t coexist in wood adhesives. This partnership shatters that assumption,” says Michael Lefenfeld, President & CEO, Hexion. “By combining Bloom’s breakthrough in lignin science with Hexion’s industrial and AI-enhanced manufacturing expertise, we’re not just offering a new product—we’re opening a new chapter for our industry.”

The partnership between Hexion and Bloom is focused on one final critical step: Enabling manufacturing-ready, adhesive-grade lignin through a scalable method that activates lignin’s evolved functionality without additional chemicals. This effort represents a transformative leap in bio-based manufacturing—replacing fossil-derived resins with sustainable, high-performance alternatives made entirely from wood.

Lorenz Manker, Chief Commercial Officer at Bloom Biorenewables, adds, “With Hexion, we’re proving that it’s possible to build adhesives that are both powerful and 100% bio-based.”