Hardened wood as a renewable alternative to steel and plastic
1–10 of 282 posts
Re: Hardened wood as a renewable alternative to steel and plastic
#2Can't read the article.
How energy efficient and environmentally friendly is the hardening process compared to making steel? And is it a "in 20 years" thing again, like all new battery tech?
Re: Hardened wood as a renewable alternative to steel and plastic
#3Fauci funded COVID-19: https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/nih-admits-funding-gain-f...
Re: Hardened wood as a renewable alternative to steel and plastic
#4I'm sold. Where can I get some of this hardened wood? I would like to experiment with it and maybe incorporate it into products.
Re: Hardened wood as a renewable alternative to steel and plastic
#5Can't read the article. How energy efficient and environmentally friendly is the hardening process compared to making steel? And is it a "in 20 years" thing again, like all new battery tech?
A general note: in a world of super cheap solar or wind, energy efficiency doesn't matter as much. It's cheap because In many instances, the end product is the "battery".
A desalination plant can be run when the sun is out and the end product (clean water) can be stored and used. In this instance, the hardening step stores energy in the final product. Just run that step at the right time.
Re: Hardened wood as a renewable alternative to steel and plastic
#6Can't read the article. How energy efficient and environmentally friendly is the hardening process compared to making steel? And is it a "in 20 years" thing again, like all new battery tech?
The summary states the process of making hardened wood is more energy efficient, but I also wonder how long this would take to scale. Seems great for small operations (like the bench at a local park), but might require regulatory changes to use in any large projects.
Re: Hardened wood as a renewable alternative to steel and plastic
#7Can't read the article. How energy efficient and environmentally friendly is the hardening process compared to making steel? And is it a "in 20 years" thing again, like all new battery tech?
A general note: in a world of super cheap solar or wind, energy efficiency doesn't matter as much. It's cheap because In many instances, the end product is the "battery". A desalination plant can be run when the sun is out and the end product (clean water) can be stored and used. In this instance, the hardening step stores energy in the final product. Just run that step at the right time.
This kind of thinking is why cryptocurrency miners are setting up shop at substations. They get severely discounted electricity from the utilities, in exchange for ramping up and down their servers to keep the grid load balanced.
Except, of course, cryptocurrency isn't nearly as useful as, say, desalinated water.
Re: Hardened wood as a renewable alternative to steel and plastic
#8There's also Accoya acetylated wood, which is already commercialized: https://www.accoya.com
Re: Hardened wood as a renewable alternative to steel and plastic
#9Usually 'hardened wood' is just wood where the air has been replaced with epoxy. The problem is epoxy is expensive and not different enough from a pure plastic.
Re: Hardened wood as a renewable alternative to steel and plastic
#10I'm sold. Where can I get some of this hardened wood? I would like to experiment with it and maybe incorporate it into products.
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