ATLANTA, Ga. — The Georgia Forestry Innovation Initiative (GFII), a collaborative effort led by Georgia Tech and the Georgia Forestry Commission (GFC), today announced the selection of The Langdale Company as its industry collaborator for development of a pilot-scale manufacturing facility designed to accelerate commercialization of innovative forest-based products and technologies.
The pilot facility is expected to support development of technologies that convert underutilized woody biomass, forestry residuals, and mill byproducts into higher-value chemicals, advanced materials, carbon products, fuels, and other forest-derived products. The effort builds upon years of research and commercialization activities underway through Georgia Tech's Renewable Bioproducts Institute and the Center for a Renewables-Based Economy from Wood (ReWOOD.) GFII was established to help accelerate pilot-scale deployment, technology commercialization, and industry relationships that can strengthen Georgia's forest economy and create new manufacturing opportunities across the state.
The Langdale Company was selected through a competitive Request for Collaboration process that was open Aug. 3 through Aug. 31, 2026. Proposals were evaluated based on site suitability, operational capabilities, industry expertise, partnership commitment, and the ability to support long-term commercialization objectives. The Langdale Company demonstrated a shared commitment to advancing Georgia's forest economy and helping scale technologies with the potential to create new manufacturing opportunities throughout the state.
The selection follows a public information meeting held July 31, 2026, in Macon, Georgia, where Georgia Tech and the Georgia Forestry Commission outlined the collaboration opportunity and invited participation from forestry companies, sawmills, manufacturers, economic development organizations, and other interested stakeholders.
The pilot facility will serve as a critical bridge between laboratory-scale research and commercial deployment, enabling emerging technologies to be tested, optimized, and validated under real-world operating conditions. The initiative aims to create new markets for Georgia's abundant forest resources while supporting economic development, manufacturing growth, and innovation throughout the state.
"Georgia's forestry sector remains one of the state's most important economic drivers, and innovation will be critical to ensuring its continued success," said Johnny Sabo, director of the Georgia Forestry Commission. "This collaboration reflects the power of connecting industry, government, and higher education. Together, we are creating new pathways to add value to Georgia's forest resources, strengthen rural communities, and support future growth across the forestry supply chain."
"Innovation creates the greatest value when it moves beyond the laboratory and into the marketplace," said Tim Lieuwen, executive vice president for Research at Georgia Tech. “This collaboration establishes the infrastructure needed to transform promising technologies into commercially viable products, from advanced materials and chemicals to fuels and carbon-based products. It’s an investment in the future competitiveness of Georgia's forestry and manufacturing sectors."
Why This Site and The Langdale Company Were Selected
The Langdale Company and its Valdosta location offer a unique combination of infrastructure, operational expertise, regional connectivity, and long-term commitment necessary to support pilot-scale operations. The location provides an opportunity to efficiently test and validate emerging forest-based technologies while creating a pathway toward future commercial deployment. The collaboration is expected to strengthen connections among researchers, manufacturers, forest landowners, and industry stakeholders working to create new markets for Georgia's forest resources.
About The Langdale Company
The Langdale Company was founded in 1894 by John Wesley Langdale on the western edge of the Okeefenokee Swamp in southeast Georgia, USA. Today the fifth generation of Langdales has assumed leadership of the company. Langdale Forest Product Co. was incorporated in 1987 but had been the manufacturing arm of The Langdale Company since 1941. Our Barnesville plant was acquired in 2023.
One of the cornerstones of Langdale Forest Products’ continued success is the commitment to innovation through research and development in the science of forestry. Widely recognized as true stewards of the forest, Langdale specializes in complete utilization of forest resources. Every year we plant more trees than we harvest, and have since the 1930’s. To date we have planted over 130 million pine seedlings. At a time when companies are divesting themselves of timber holdings, Langdale is dedicated to continued growth of their timber base.
Langdale Forest Products Co. (sawmills), a domestic profit corporation, is a subsidiary company of The Langdale Company. Any agreements with Georgia Forestry Innovation Initiative would be entered by Langdale Forest Products Co. Both The Langdale Company and Langdale Forest Products Co. are located at 1202 Madison Highway Valdosta, GA 31601; with a mailing address of P.O. Box 1088, Valdosta, GA 31603.
About the Georgia Forestry Innovation Initiative
The Georgia Forestry Innovation Initiative is an $8.9 million, state-funded effort led jointly by Georgia Tech and the Georgia Forestry Commission. GFII is focused on advancing pilot-scale facilities, accelerating technology commercialization, and supporting new manufacturing opportunities that create value from Georgia's forest resources. The initiative seeks to transform underutilized wood and forest-industry byproducts into higher-value chemicals, materials, fuels, carbon products, and other advanced products while supporting economic development across Georgia.
Next Steps
Planning, engineering, permitting, and site-development activities will begin immediately. Additional development, investment discussions, and infrastructure planning will continue through fall 2026, with a goal of initiating construction activities before the end of the year and advancing the facility toward operational readiness in 2027. The pilot facility is expected to become a cornerstone of Georgia's growing forest-based innovation ecosystem and a model for research-to-commercialization collaborations nationwide.
Georgia Forestry Commission
Wendy Burnett, Public Relations Director
Cell: (478) 365-6233
]]>Whether it's paper used in packaging or metals designed for structural applications, manufacturers rely on testing to understand how materials will perform before they reach the real world.
Most people never think about paper as an engineered material. Yet everything from shipping boxes and food packaging to paper towels and specialty products depends on materials performing exactly as intended.
At Georgia Tech's Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI), Jonathan Jean-Louis helps answer those questions.
A 2019 Georgia Tech mechanical engineering graduate, Jean-Louis works in materials testing, helping industry partners and researchers evaluate paper, metals, and other materials. While much of his work focuses on paper products, he also performs testing on metals and other engineered materials, providing data that companies use to assess quality, compare materials, and guide product development.
Jean-Louis was drawn to the role because it allowed him to combine engineering with hands-on research and testing. Since joining RBI, he has worked with a variety of clients, ranging from Georgia Tech researchers and students to companies and organizations seeking independent materials evaluation. Among them is the Library of Congress, which relies on materials testing as part of its preservation efforts.
For Jean-Louis, one of the most overlooked aspects of his field is the amount of engineering behind products people use every day. Materials that appear simple on the surface often undergo extensive testing before reaching consumers. Packaging must withstand transportation. Paper products must meet performance standards. Manufacturers depend on testing data to understand how materials behave under real-world conditions.
At RBI, that work supports both research and industry. Whether evaluating paper, metal, or emerging materials, Jean-Louis helps generate the data needed to understand how materials will perform under real-world conditions.
Much of that work happens out of sight, but the results shape products and materials people encounter every day.
Learn more about RBI's paper, board, and box testing services.
Yanet Chernet
Communications Officer
Georgia’s $41 billion forest products industry needs a transformation, and a Georgia Tech research team is reimagining how pulp mills use energy and what they can make from their byproduct streams.
For nearly a decade, Sankar Nair, professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and a longtime researcher with the Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI), has led a collaborative effort to develop technologies that can radically improve the efficiency and profitability of kraft pulp mills.
“What began as a project to save energy in pulp production has grown into a much broader vision,” Nair explains. “We’re not just trying to make mills more efficient. We’re working to turn the kraft pulp mill into a kraft-based biorefinery that produces multiple higher-value products.”
Nair explains that traditional kraft mills use a highly energy-intensive “chemical recovery loop” to handle black liquor — the dark, viscous byproduct left after pulp is separated from wood chips. That loop relies on multistage evaporators and massive recovery boilers to remove water, burn the remaining organics for steam and electricity, and recycle inorganic chemicals back into the process.
“The original desire from our industry partners was to save energy,” Nair says. “Instead of evaporating the water in black liquor, we asked whether membranes could take on most of the dewatering and potentially cut that energy use in half.”
Over time, the team realized the opportunity went well beyond efficiency. “We use these membranes in such a way that they actually fractionate the black liquor, not just dewater it,” Nair says. “One stream is rich in lignin; another is rich in organic acids. From those, we can recover and purify components and turn them into entirely new products.”
Lignin is a complex organic polymer and one of the most abundant biological materials on Earth. It acts as nature’s “glue,” providing plants with structural rigidity and resistance to decay.
From lignin-rich fractions, the team has already demonstrated carbon materials that can be tailored for battery anodes and porous adsorbents used in environmental remediation and separations — today mostly made from fossil-based carbons. These lignin-derived carbons are of particular interest as a domestic alternative to graphite, a critical battery material that is currently dominated by overseas production.
On the organic acid side, Nair and Christopher Jones, a Georgia Tech catalysis and reaction engineering expert, have gone a step further, converting those acids into mixtures of much heavier molecules that could become high-performance industrial lubricants and additives.
“It’s exciting to do a new cascade of reactions to make products that we haven’t really made before,” says Jones, the John F. Brock III School Chair and professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
Jones explains that green lubricants derived from non-fossil sources have “both high demand and high value.” Georgia Tech has not yet compared the performance of these products to conventional lubricants, but the platform is in place to do so in the future.
“The products we are pursuing from lignin and organic acids have bulk demand and also can command significantly higher prices than traditional pulp-based outputs,” Nair notes. “That’s essential if the forest products industry is going to be profitable and competitive over the long term.”
The two researchers have collaborated on three papers, with two already published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering (June 2024) and ACS Catalysis (February 2026).
A key hurdle in moving from lab concept to mill reality is scalable manufacturing of the membranes themselves. That’s where collaboration with Georgia Tech’s advanced manufacturing community comes in.
“In recent years, we’ve really focused on how we can manufacture these membranes at low cost and in a continuous, scalable way,” Nair says. “That’s involved close collaboration with colleagues in materials science, mechanical engineering, and Georgia Tech’s manufacturing institutes.”
Another Georgia Tech collaborator, Tequila Harris, a professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, is leading the effort to move the current small-scale batch process into a continuous, industry-ready, roll-to-roll system that can produce long sheets of reduced graphene oxide membranes.
A key enabling step to shift from batch-mode production, says Harris, was integrating vacuum pressure into the manufacturing system to support high-throughput continuous production without the use of any volatile organic solvents that are commonly used in membrane production. Harris envisions “high-quality output at production speeds above 60 meters per minute,” which will “dramatically increase production volume while reducing solvent usage and waste, such as water,” says Harris.
The technology is now mature enough for field testing. The team is preparing to deploy membrane modules at a major pulp and paper mill near Savannah operated by Rayonier Advanced Materials (RYAM).
“We’re assembling full membrane modules and installing them in a test skid that will run on real kraft black liquor from the mill,” Nair says. “We’ll collect long-term performance and reliability data that feeds into detailed models of how best to deploy these membranes in a working kraft mill.”
RYAM leaders, including Larissa Fenn, Director of New Products and Chair of the External Advisory Board for Georgia Tech’s Center for a Renewables-Based Economy From Wood (ReWOOD), help ensure that cutting-edge research remains connected to real-world industry challenges and opportunities.
“Much of our internal research is focused on supporting current operations, customers, and product lines,” Fenn says. “Partnerships with universities allow us to look five to ten years ahead and engage in transformational research that can create entirely new opportunities for our business and the broader forest products industry.”
“The transition to more sustainable materials, chemicals, and fuels represents one of the greatest opportunities our industry has seen in decades,” she adds. “Continued innovation is essential not only for maintaining competitiveness, but also for creating new markets for renewable, wood-based resources and strengthening the long-term sustainability of the forestry sector.”
Fenn emphasized that the impact extends well beyond individual companies.
“The forestry economy is the backbone of many rural communities across Georgia and throughout the Southeast,” she says. “Advancing technologies that create new value from renewable resources helps support landowners, manufacturers, and the communities that depend on this industry.”
Fenn works at RYAM’s Jesup, Georgia facility, which employs more than 800 people and is the largest employer in the local community.
“Facilities like ours are deeply connected to the communities we serve,” Fenn says. “When we invest in innovation, we are investing in the future of manufacturing, forestry, and economic opportunity in rural America.”
Transforming an operating mill into a full biorefinery isn’t something that happens overnight, and Nair’s group is designing with that reality in mind.
“All of these technologies are modular and designed to be fully integrated with the kraft process,” he says. “You don’t have to spend billions of dollars up front to build an entirely new plant. You can gradually integrate membrane-based fractionation and stream upgrading technologies for new product streams into the existing kraft process, and each mill can follow its own transition path.”
That modular design also provides flexibility in how mills manage energy. Diverting black liquor into higher-value products means less organic material available as fuel for the recovery boiler. Still, the energy-efficiency gains from membrane dewatering reduce overall consumption, and mills can draw on grid electricity to make up the difference.
“The goal is not to save energy for its own sake,” Nair emphasizes. “It’s to use that energy more productively to create value-added outputs that support jobs, rural communities, and a more innovative and resilient bio-based economy in Georgia.”
The urgency of this work is underscored by the pressures facing the industry: Georgia’s forestry sector has seen paper mill closures since the 1990s, due to digitization and shifts in demand, with three major mill closures in 2025. The Georgia Forestry Commission estimates that mill closures erased the market for 8.3 million tons of timber, and reduced lumber usage, import tariffs, and labor shortages compounded the crisis, according to the 2026 Georgia AG Forecast. New revenue streams and efficiency gains may be essential for mills’ survival.
Beyond kraft mills, Georgia Tech researchers are already extending the membrane platform to agricultural biomass and municipal waste streams in collaboration with partners like the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Texas Tech University. They are also tapping into national initiatives, including the NSF Center for Advancing Sustainable and Distributed Fertilizer Production (CASFER)and the Biobased Rural Innovation for Domestic Growth and Economic Security (BRIDGES).
Lignin-Derived Materials for the Battery Supply Chain
Matthew McDowell, co-director of the Georgia Tech Advanced Battery Center, sees many cross-sector applications for lignin-derived carbon materials, including batteries, which are increasingly foundational to strategic sectors such as mobility, the power grid, and defense.
Lignin-derived carbons can serve as a domestic replacement for graphite in lithium-ion batteries — a critical material not widely produced in the U.S.
“Conventional synthetic graphite is derived from crude oil and requires very high temperatures, making it energy-intensive and polluting,” McDowell said, noting that their goal is to convert lignin and cellulose “to high-value battery materials that could enable the growth of a new battery supply chain here in the United States.” He envisions the work one day transitioning to the Advanced Battery Center, which is planning a new facility scheduled to open at the end of 2027 that will enable companies and academic researchers to “build and test full-scale battery cells for translational R&D.”
Life-cycle analysis carried out by the team has shown benefits in both lower costs and more efficient energy use when making these carbons from biomass sources.
Today, China leads the world in battery production, with Korea and Japan also long-established leaders. The U.S. is building more domestic capability for national security and economic reasons.
Researchers at Georgia Tech on the front lines of this work also include Jones, who also collaborated on the lubricants research; Valerie Thomas, Anderson Interface Chair of Natural Systems and professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering and the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy; and Meisha Shofner, professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering.
Thomas is leading research on life-cycle and economic analyses of converting lignin to produce “carbonized lignin” anodes that can replace petroleum‑based synthetic graphite in batteries. She says that lignin‑based graphite can displace petroleum‑derived synthetic graphite, delivering 84% lower energy use, 92% lower greenhouse gas emissions, and lower emissions of other pollutants.
“This work establishes a supply chain for making batteries, which has really broader impacts throughout Georgia,” says Thomas, who believes lignin-based battery materials will lead to a stronger forest products economy and a more resilient battery supply chain in Georgia.
McDowell agrees. “Marrying the forest products industry and the battery industry makes a lot of sense for Georgia, because both of those industries are really big,” he says, and both are “key employers in the state.” In his view, innovations could benefit both simultaneously.
Scott Sinquefield, senior research engineer in RBI, sees the graphene-oxide membrane work as squarely within its charge to modernize the forest products sector that anchors Georgia’s rural economy.
“Part of our mission is to support this industry and advance it. This falls right under our umbrella,” he said, noting that RBI has been providing scientific support to mills for nearly a century, dating back to its origins as the Institute of Paper Chemistry in 1929.
The Georgia Tech team’s vision is clear, as Nair explains: “If we can do this right, kraft mills don’t just survive. They become hubs of advanced biomanufacturing that anchor a more resilient and sustainable forest-based economy for the state.”
Writer: Anne Wainscott-Sargent
Media Contact: Jennifer Martin | jennifer.martin@research.gatech.edu
Six years after demonstrating that membranes could separate crude oil at the molecular level, Georgia Tech researcher Ryan Lively is part of an international team that has taken the concept a significant step further.
The team, including investigators at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), discovered that a membrane material widely believed to be non-selective for molecules as small as those found in crude can in fact selectively separate crude oil into lighter and heavier fractions in a way researchers did not expect.
Published in Nature, their findings suggest that using membranes to separate crude oil before distillation could significantly reduce the energy, water, and carbon footprint of petroleum refining.
Lively, the Thomas C. DeLoach Jr. Endowed Professor in Georgia Tech's School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, served as an advisor and corresponding author on the study. Dong-Yeun Koh, an associate professor at KAIST and a former postdoc in the Lively Lab at Georgia Tech, led the study.
Building on Earlier Research
In the 2020 Science paper, Lively and collaborators demonstrated that specially designed membranes could separate crude oil into valuable fractions without relying solely on traditional heat-driven distillation. The work helped establish membrane-based crude oil fractionation as a promising alternative for reducing energy use in refining.
"This work grew directly out of the challenges we identified in our original findings in the 2020 article," Lively said. "One of the key challenges that the KAIST team set out to tackle was the very low oil productivities of the membrane units, which has limited the ability of this concept to leave the lab. Along the way, we not only increased the productivities, but we also uncovered a surprising new mechanism that could make membrane-based crude oil separations even more practical.”
The new study built on that foundation. The researchers investigated polyacrylonitrile (PAN) membranes, a material commonly used as a non-selective support layer in filtration systems. Because the material is porous, the team generally did not expect it to perform precise molecular separations on its own.
But what they found surprised them, Lively said. As crude oil flowed through the membrane, heavier hydrocarbon molecules accumulated within the membrane's pores. Instead of clogging the membrane, the buildup created a stable internal layer that gradually narrowed the pathways through which molecules could travel. Surprisingly, the molecules that caused the buildup in the first place were eventually excluded from entering the membrane, resulting in a steady production of higher quality oil through the narrow pathways that remained.
In effect, the membrane created its own molecular-scale filter. The result was a process that allowed lighter hydrocarbons to pass through while holding back heavier components.
The membrane enriched lighter fractions such as naphtha and kerosene while achieving crude oil flow rates more than 23 times higher those reported in the 2020 paper for whole crude oils
When Buildup Becomes an Asset
In most filtration systems, buildup inside a membrane (or fouling) is considered a problem because it reduces performance.
But according to the researchers, this study demonstrates that something different can happen under the right conditions.
Using a range of analytical techniques, the researchers found that long-chain hydrocarbon molecules accumulated inside the membrane and became an essential part of the separation process. The deposits effectively transformed larger pores into stable transport pathways measuring less than two nanometers across, they deduced based on available experimental evidence.
The membrane maintained consistent separation performance during four weeks of continuous operation, suggesting the filtration pathways remained stable over time.
“The findings challenge traditional assumptions about membrane fouling and may offer new opportunities for designing industrial separation systems that take advantage of similar behavior,” Lively said.
Potential Impact on Refining
Today's refineries heat entire streams of crude oil to separate them into useful products. By using membranes to remove a substantial portion of the lighter hydrocarbons before distillation, refineries could reduce the amount of material that must undergo energy-intensive heating. Alternatively, the refinery can use the membranes to incrementally increase refinery capacity, which is currently not possible using large-scale distillation equipment.
To evaluate the potential impacts of the membrane system, the researchers modeled a refinery process that incorporated a membrane separation step before conventional distillation.
“This study reveals a new scientific principle in which a membrane interacts with a complex mixture and spontaneously forms its own separation channels," Koh said. "Working with real crude oil supplied by HD Hyundai Oilbank allowed us to validate the technology under conditions relevant to industrial operation.”
The team's technoeconomic analysis showed that incorporating the membrane process could reduce distillation energy use by 30%, carbon dioxide emissions by 35%, and water consumption by 20%.
Applied across U.S. atmospheric crude distillation capacity — about 18 million barrels per day — those savings would be equivalent to powering roughly 2.2 million homes, removing about 3 million passenger vehicles from the road, and supplying enough water for approximately 660,000 people each year.
"Turning crude oil into useful products has relied on essentially the same basic approach for more than a century," Lively said. "Membranes offer a path toward achieving those separations with dramatically lower energy requirements and emissions."
The study's findings also suggest that the phenomenon may not be limited to a single membrane chemistry. Researchers observed similar behavior in a second membrane material, raising the possibility that the approach could be extended to other membrane systems.
"This is a terrific piece of research that rewards curiosity," said Andrew LIvington, vice president of research and innovation and professor at Queen Mary University of London, who was not involved with the study. "This work adds significantly to the field of membrane separations of crude oil streams as it tackles the first, hard to achieve separation of heavy hydrocarbons – most work to date has focused on lighter oils – and it uses a simple and readily available membrane."
CITATION:
Jihoon Choi, Hyeokjun Seo, Minyong Lee, Woong-Chul Shin, Jaemin Choi, Keonwoo Choi, Min-Jun Jang, Sung Gap Im, Jae W. Lee, Ryan P. Lively, and Dong-Yeun Koh, "Crude oil fractionation by means of mesoporous polyacrylonitrile membranes," Nature, 2026.
Growing up in the Bahamas, Javaz Rolle noticed something that would later shape his research career.
The island nation imports much of what it consumes, yet many local resources are discarded as waste. These include lobster shells, shrimp shells, and other byproducts from the seafood industry.
"I noticed that there were a lot of resources that we had on the island that we could use for something in a more sustainable effort, but people weren't actually using that," Rolle said.
Years later, that observation would shape the direction of his doctoral research in Chemical Engineering at Georgia Tech.
As a fellow at the Renewable Bioproducts Institute(RBI), Rolle studied sustainable packaging materials made from naturally sourced compounds such as cellulose and chitin, which can be extracted from the shells of crustaceans, including shrimp and lobster.
"As you can imagine, that's all of your shrimp shells, your lobster shells, all of those, which essentially would just go in the garbage," he said.
In the lab, however, those materials became something else entirely.
Rolle's research focused on transforming renewable materials into packaging alternatives capable of mimicking the performance of traditional petroleum-based plastics. The goal was to create materials that could limit the movement of oxygen and moisture, which are two factors that can quickly degrade food, pharmaceuticals, and other products.
The work aligned closely with his long-standing interest in sustainability. Before arriving at Georgia Tech, Rolle had researched ways to reduce microplastics in the environment. When exploring graduate programs, he found a similar research path in the lab of Carson Meredith, executive director of the Renewable Bioproducts Institute.
"Carson's research really piqued an interest in me," Rolle said. "I was still on the trying-to-reduce-plastics end, but just from a different approach."
Instead of addressing plastic pollution after it entered the environment, Rolle's research explored how biodegradable alternatives could help reduce the problem before it began.
Today, Rolle works as a product development engineer at Sealed Air, where he helps solve packaging challenges for food products. His days are spent investigating why materials behave the way they do on production lines and determining whether a problem originates in the material itself or somewhere in the manufacturing process.
"If something's not packaging the way it's supposed to, we look at the formulation, how they're running the process, and determine exactly why this is happening," he said.
Although his current role focuses on conventional packaging materials, many of the scientific principles remain familiar. The polymer chemistry and barrier-property research that shaped his doctoral work now help him evaluate packaging performance in industry.
But the connection between his research and his career runs deeper than chemistry.
Growing up in the Bahamas taught Rolle to look at materials differently, not simply for what they are, but for what they could become. At Georgia Tech, that perspective led him to transform seafood waste into potential packaging materials. Today, it helps him solve challenges for products used every day.
What began with questions about waste and sustainability has evolved into a career focused on understanding materials and improving how they perform. The setting may have changed from a university research lab to the packaging industry, but the curiosity that first brought him to Georgia Tech continues to guide his work.
Whether it's paper used in packaging or metals designed for structural applications, manufacturers rely on testing to understand how materials will perform before they reach the real world.
Most people never think about paper as an engineered material. Yet everything from shipping boxes and food packaging to paper towels and specialty products depends on materials performing exactly as intended.
At Georgia Tech's Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI), Jonathan Jean-Louis helps answer those questions.
A 2019 Georgia Tech mechanical engineering graduate, Jean-Louis works in materials testing, helping industry partners and researchers evaluate paper, metals, and other materials. While much of his work focuses on paper products, he also performs testing on metals and other engineered materials, providing data that companies use to assess quality, compare materials, and guide product development.
Jean-Louis was drawn to the role because it allowed him to combine engineering with hands-on research and testing. Since joining RBI, he has worked with a variety of clients, ranging from Georgia Tech researchers and students to companies and organizations seeking independent materials evaluation. Among them is the Library of Congress, which relies on materials testing as part of its preservation efforts.
For Jean-Louis, one of the most overlooked aspects of his field is the amount of engineering behind products people use every day. Materials that appear simple on the surface often undergo extensive testing before reaching consumers. Packaging must withstand transportation. Paper products must meet performance standards. Manufacturers depend on testing data to understand how materials behave under real-world conditions.
At RBI, that work supports both research and industry. Whether evaluating paper, metal, or emerging materials, Jean-Louis helps generate the data needed to understand how materials will perform under real-world conditions.
Much of that work happens out of sight, but the results shape products and materials people encounter every day.
Learn more about RBI's paper, board, and box testing services.
The Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI) at Georgia Tech hosted its Spring 2026 Workshop, “Resilient Forests to Renewable Futures,” on May 11 and 12. The workshop brought together university researchers, scientists, and industry partners to discuss new developments shaping the future of the bioeconomy.
Preceded by an Industry Advisory Board meeting, the two-day workshop focused on how renewable materials, biotechnology, and advanced manufacturing can support more sustainable industrial systems. Discussions throughout the event explored topics ranging from forest health and biotechnology innovations to sustainable packaging and high-value biochemical products derived from forest resources.
Opening the workshop, RBI Executive Director Carson Meredith emphasized the institute’s focus on interdisciplinary collaboration and real-world impact.
“Our goal is to catalyze a community of researchers who focus on solving real-world challenges by investing in team building across interdisciplinary boundaries,” Meredith said.
Meredith also highlighted the growing need to create higher-value products from renewable resources in addition to traditional commodity materials.
That focus connected closely with updates on Georgia Tech’s Center for a Renewables-based Economy from Wood (ReWOOD). The center supports research aimed at turning sustainable plant-based materials into products such as aviation fuels, specialty chemicals, solvents, and pharmaceutical ingredients while strengthening connections between research and industry.
Several presentations focused on improving the long-term health and productivity of working forests. Caterina Villari from the University of Georgia and David Weston from Oak Ridge National Laboratory shared research aimed at protecting trees from diseases such as fusiform rust and brown spot needle blight. Their work combines biotechnology, genetic screening, and artificial intelligence tools to help identify tree varieties that are more resilient to disease and environmental stress.
The workshop also explored how forest fibers can be used to create more sustainable packaging materials. Patritsia Stathatou from Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering presented research on manufacturing methods designed to reduce water and energy use in paper and packaging production.
Industry speakers discussed the challenges of bringing those materials into large-scale manufacturing. Michael Joyce, Senior Associate Principal Engineer at Mondelēz International, emphasized that paper-based alternatives must still meet the strength, durability, and performance standards required for existing packaging systems.
Additional discussions focused on how forest-derived materials can be used to create higher-value products beyond traditional paper and lumber applications. Speakers highlighted a growing interest in converting wood residues and byproducts into specialty chemicals, fuels, and biomaterials that can strengthen the long-term economics of renewable manufacturing.
Larissa Fenn from Rayonier Advanced Materials discussed the company’s work converting wood-derived materials into natural prebiotics for livestock. In collaborative studies with researchers at the University of Georgia, the products improved livestock gut health and feed efficiency while performing similarly to traditional antibiotics in certain diseased conditions.
The workshop also included a student poster session and networking event, giving attendees an opportunity to engage directly with RBI Fellows and researchers working across renewable materials and manufacturing research.
“What made the workshop especially valuable was having people from different backgrounds and sectors all in the same room looking at these challenges from different perspectives. Those conversations are what move ideas from research into real-world applications,” said Meredith. “RBI will continue to host these workshops as part of our commitment to interdisciplinary research advancing the bioeconomy.
Led by Joel E. Kostka, Tom and Marie Patton Distinguished Professor and director of Georgia Tech for Georgia’s Tomorrow (GT²), the research effort will help restore coastal salt marshes through AI-enabled micropropagation and developing probiotics for plants. It is the only salt marsh-focused effort funded nationally in the cohort.
The award supports both the development of more climate-resilient salt marsh plants, as well as new capacity for coastal restoration in Georgia — an effort that aligns closely with GT²’s mission to connect research, innovation, and community needs to address critical environmental and community challenges.
Salt marshes are among Georgia’s most important natural resources, helping buffer communities from storms, support fisheries, and sustain coastal economies. Yet the state currently lacks a reliable source of salt marsh seedlings needed for large-scale restoration.
The funded project addresses that gap by advancing the production of hardier marsh plants and laying the groundwork for a broader restoration economy.
“The opportunity here is to build something that doesn’t currently exist in Georgia — a scalable, science-driven supply of salt marsh plants for safer, healthier coastal communities and ecosystems,” Kostka says. “By combining biotechnology, ecology, and partnerships across the region, we are accelerating coastal resilience while supporting long-term environmental and economic benefits.”
Kostka will work with project co-researchers Else-Marie Ulrika Egertsdotter (Georgia Tech Renewable Bioproducts Institute) and Caitlin Petro (Georgia Tech Biological Sciences), Heather Joesting (Georgia Southern University), Emily Coffey and Lauren Eserman-Campbell (Atlanta Botanical Garden), and Sydney Williams (University of Georgia and Georgia Sea Grant) — along with several anticipated regional partners, including University of Georgia Marine Institute, GA/SC/NC Departments of Natural Resources, Southeastern Plant Conservation Alliance, and Bald Head Island Conservancy.
The team will create a “Climate-Ready Spartina Toolkit” with automated plant tissue culture, AI-based screening tools, a culture collection that serves as probiotics for plants, a seed bank and library of preserved plant materials, step-by-step instructions for successful growing, and ready for regional deployment.
The project also continues the evolution of Kostka’s collaborative research Egertsdotter and the Georgia Tech Renewable Bioproducts Institute. “RBI shares the goal of using biotechnology to produce climate-resilient plants that benefit society,” Kostka says. “Their expertise in plant tissue culture and automation make this work possible. It also is a great example of collaboration between GT Sciences and Engineering — the automation of plant tissue culture was developed by mechanical engineers in RBI.”
The new award builds on growing momentum for Georgia Tech for Georgia’s Tomorrow and its expanding network of collaborators focused on coastal resilience. Based in the College of Sciences, GT² is designed to align discovery science with technological innovation and data-driven tools to deliver practical solutions for communities across the state.
In April, GT² launched a formal research fund and partnership with the Bald Head Island Conservancy (BHIC), connecting Georgia Tech researchers with BHIC’s Johnston Center for Coastal Sustainability in North Carolina to advance shared work in coastal sustainability, ecosystem health, and environmental resilience.
The partnership combines BHIC’s applied, field-based conservation work with Georgia Tech’s strengths in technological innovation and data analysis, creating new opportunities for graduate research, community engagement, and real-world implementation.
Better Together
These “all hands on deck” approaches reflect a broader strategy to scale tangible solutions across regional ecosystems by connecting researchers and partners with community stakeholders.
“Together, we hope these projects will demonstrate that genetic rescue is a powerful lever for the blue carbon ecosystems that underpin both ecological and human communities in the face of climate change,” said Liv Liberman, Director of Ocean and Climate at Revive & Restore and program manager for the Climate Resilience Fund.
The efforts reflect GT²’s goal of creating pathways from research to implementation, working across sectors to deliver measurable outcomes for the southeastern environment and its communities.
“This award recognizes the kind of integrated, real-world research that GT² is built to deliver,” says Kostka. “We’re bringing together researchers, agencies, and community partners to move from science to scalable solutions — especially along southeastern coasts, where the need is urgent and the opportunities are significant.”
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About Georgia Tech for Georgia’s Tomorrow
Georgia Tech for Georgia’s Tomorrow (GT²) is a College of Sciences–based initiative that connects discovery science, innovation, and partnerships to address pressing challenges in environmental and community resilience across Georgia. The initiative works with state agencies, industry, non-profits, and local communities to develop solutions that improve quality of life and strengthen the state’s future.
About Revive & Restore
Revive & Restore is a nonprofit conservation organization that develops and promotes genetic rescue technologies to protect and restore endangered and extinct species. Founded in 2012 by Stewart Brand and Ryan Phelan, the organization works across birds, mammals, coral, and marine ecosystems to demonstrate that biotechnology is an essential tool in the conservation toolkit.
]]>Elizabeth Bennett
Communications Director
Revive & Restore
Effective August 1, Chris Luettgen will assume the role of interim director of RBI.
“Carson has made lasting contributions to Georgia Tech and to RBI during his time as executive director,” said Julia Kubanek, vice president for Interdisciplinary Research. “We are grateful for his leadership and wish him continued success in this next chapter.”
During his tenure, Meredith helped expand RBI’s research footprint, strengthen partnerships across academia and industry, and advance the Institute’s leadership in sustainable bioproducts and bio-based innovation. His work helped position RBI as a key driver of collaboration and research in the forest products and renewable materials sectors.
Luettgen brings extensive experience in forest-based and bio-based research, industry collaboration, and technical leadership. He has held leadership roles at Georgia Tech and has longstanding ties to the Institute of Paper Science and Technology (IPST), working extensively at the intersection of academic research and industry collaboration. He currently serves as Professor of the Practice in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, where he teaches in Georgia Tech’s pulp and paper program and serves as RBI’s strategic lead for Pulp and Paper.
Before joining Georgia Tech, Luettgen spent many years at Kimberly-Clark and Scott Paper Company, where he held senior technical and research leadership positions focused on translating research into commercial impact. He is also widely recognized for his longstanding involvement with the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI), reflecting his commitment to advancing innovation, workforce development, and collaboration across the forest products and bioproducts industries.
“Chris brings deep expertise, strong industry connections, and a clear understanding of RBI’s mission and community,” Meredith said. “I’m confident he will provide steady leadership and continuity for the Institute during this transition.”
RBI will share additional details regarding the transition in the coming months.
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