I can use this.
Originally shared by Alex P
Super wood stronger than metals could be used to create compostable biodegradable cars and other things now made of metal. “It is as strong as steel, but six times lighter. It takes 10 times more energy to fracture than natural wood. It can even be bent and molded at the beginning of the process” 🙂
The team’s process begins by removing the wood’s lignin, the part of the wood that makes it both rigid and brown in color. Then it is compressed under mild heat, at about 150 F. This causes the cellulose fibers to become very tightly packed. Any defects like holes or knots are crushed together. The treatment process was extended a little further with a coat of paint.
The scientists found that the wood’s fibers are pressed together so tightly that they can form strong hydrogen bonds, like a crowd of people who can’t budge – who are also holding hands. The compression makes the wood five times thinner than its original size.
See why (eco🌎+public health🌈+☮etc reasons) i installed ☀️ solar panels equivalent to planting 322 trees â–º https://plus.google.com/+AlexPsi/posts/fRXCoB36DdD and why i drive an electric car equivalent to planting 382 trees (if the oil car would be refilled weekly) â–º https://plus.google.com/+AlexPsi/posts/HN9dbDavUzz. If your panels produce more electricity than you use, you get free charging for your car too, like me. 💜😊💜
https://umdrightnow.umd.edu/news/umd-researchers-create-super-wood-stronger-most-metals
But will it still be biodegradable? Everything made from here on in, IE after the plastic debacle, needs to be … to help restore natural processes.
I did wonder about that. I imagine it will still be biodegradable, but at a slower rate. As far as I know, bacteria decompose cellulose as well as lignin.
I would think Tesla would be keeping an eye on this tech.
Notably missing from the article: how the lignin is removed, and what the environmental impact of that process is. Still, potentially very cool, and given how energy-intensive mining and smelting metals is, almost anything is likely to be an improvement.
Another thing to consider though is how this technology will impact on additional numbers of trees needed, types of trees? IE Hardwood rainforest species? of which we are already losing too many.
I looked into it a bit; there are several ways to remove lignin, some of them using harsh chemicals (which, however, can be recycled). One alternative way that’s been tried uses fungi, and the gnomes in my Gryphon Clerks setting are all about the fungus science:
wfs.swst.org – Removing Lignin from Wood with White-Rot Fungi and Digestibility of Resulting Wood | Kirk | Wood and Fiber Science
You can also use enzymes, apparently.
Rita de Heer, one possibility is that agricultural land could be converted to forest (silviculture). This is particularly feasible/likely if more efficient farming techniques reduce the need for agricultural land as the demand for wood rises.
Mike Reeves-McMillan Thanks, all good stuff that I will study when I have time. People are extracting enzymes from fungi apparently.
Biotech is going to be huge.
I’m thinking of this compressed superwood as a hull material for the exploratory skyfrigate, the Resolute, that goes out to establish trade relations over the mountains in a yet-to-be-written book of the Gryphon Clerks series. I’m envisaging a kind of steampunk Star Trek scenario, a voyage of discovery and diplomacy featuring episodic encounters with the strange and unusual.