Using high-tech renewable wood to make just about everything

Source: New Scientist

This has to be the most exciting New Scientist article I have read in awhile! In material science labs around the world, people are working on an entire civilisation built on wood. The aim is to replace steel, concrete, plastics and some electronics with high-tech wood.

It is not the wood as we know it but processed wood. Some products planned to be made from this high-tech wood include: most car parts; skyscrapers; windows (wood can be processed into a strong, transparent material); aeroplanes; batteries; clothing and mobile phones. For example, Japanese engineers are due to unveil a wooden concept car at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

So far buildings, including skyscrapers, have been and are planned to be built from cross-laminated timber (CLT) which is very strong and can be processed off-site. Made to measure large flat sheets of CLT can make building construction easier and faster. Some examples of existing buildings are given in the New Scientist article cited below.

Wood is a complex mixture of organic chemicals. The most prominent is nanocellulose (40%) which is composed of long, strong fibres with excellent mechanical properties. Lignin comprises 30% of wood and the rest is a starch-like substance called hemicellulose. These three compounds can be extracted and processed into many valuable compounds.

Nanocellulose is already used as a petrochemical substitute in paints, glues, cosmetics, nappies, packaging and electronics. It has been proposed for thousands of other products, e.g. the car industry is exploring it as a replacement for glass fibres in bodywork.

Lignin is the coming revolution. It is a waste product from wood pulp and paper processing. Work is being done by chemical companies to use it to replace different petroleum-based products. The best developments so far are in coatings, adhesives and resins.

The laggard is hemicellulose which is difficult to process but the ultimate aim is to use it to replace plastic. Some examples of success here are to be found in the New Scientist article cited below.

Reference:
- Paper copy: “Welcome to the age of wood” by Graham Lawton, New Scientist, 16 March 2019, No3221, pp 33-37.
- Digital copy introduction: Our wooden future: making cars, skyscrapers and even lasers from wood.
- Individual issues of New Scientist can be purchased online from the New Scientist app for A$7.99.