I wonder how fire resistant hardened wood is. I can imagine cities like Chicago having a hard time to use wood in commercial buildings with history launch as "The Great Chicago Fire"[0]
Hardened wood as a renewable alternative to steel and plastic
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Re: Hardened wood as a renewable alternative to steel and plastic
#12I've been intrigued for a while about various modified wood technologies (eg hardened wood, transparent wood), but I'm always disappointed because it usually ends up just being a minor support structure for a very non-wood material (generally epoxy). This one shows a compression step, so maybe it's different, but I'd really like more info on whether this is actually renewable or sustainable in any interesting sense.
Very reminiscent of the supposedly renewable & sustainable bamboo products that are anything but. I love bamboo, but flooring should make you think "plywood" not "waving groves of fast-growing giant grasses". It's another glue and epoxy thing.
Update: https://phys.org/news/2021-10-hardened-wooden-knives-slice-s... is a much better source.
Re: Hardened wood as a renewable alternative to steel and plastic
#13I'm sold. Where can I get some of this hardened wood? I would like to experiment with it and maybe incorporate it into products.
I'd love some hardwood cutlery. Assuming it's soak-proof, as I often leave dirty kitchenware to soak before washing it.
Re: Hardened wood as a renewable alternative to steel and plastic
#14From "Hemp Wood: A Comprehensive Guide" https://www.buildwithrise.com/stories/hempwood-the-sustainab... :
> HempWood is priced competitively to similar cuts of black walnut. You can purchase 72" HempWood boards for between $13 and $40 as of the date of publishing. HempWood also sells carving blocks, cabinets, and kits to make your own table. Prices for table kits range from $175 to $300. Jul 5, 2021 […]
> Is Hemp Wood Healthy? Due to its organic roots and soy-based adhesive, hemp wood is naturally non-toxic and doesn't contain VOCs, making it a healthier choice for interior building.
> Hemp wood has also been tested to have a decreased likelihood of warping and twisting. Its design is free of any of the knots common in other hardwoods to reduce wood waste.
FWIU, hempcrete - hemp hurds and sustainable limestone - must be framed; possibly with Hemp Wood, which is stronger than spec lumber of the same dimensions.
FWIU, Hemp batting insulation is soaked in sodium to meet code.
Hopefully the production and distribution processes for these carbon sinks keeps net negative carbon in the black.
Re: Hardened wood as a renewable alternative to steel and plastic
#15Fauci needs to be arrested today.
NIH Admits they funded GoF Research at Wuhan.
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/nih-admits-to-funding-ga...
Re: Hardened wood as a renewable alternative to steel and plastic
#16I’ve seen this before. It starts getting curious at the “chemical treatment” step.
Re: Hardened wood as a renewable alternative to steel and plastic
#17We have, for all intents and purposes, an unlimited supply of carbon and iron. Assuming we one day get over our FUD of nuclear energy (which with the use of breeder reactors is considered a renewable form of energy), it follows that steel itself can be considered renewable.
Re: Hardened wood as a renewable alternative to steel and plastic
#18From "Hemp Wood: A Comprehensive Guide" https://www.buildwithrise.com/stories/hempwood-the-sustainab... : > HempWood is priced competitively to similar cuts of black walnut. You can purchase 72" HempWood boards for between $13 and $40 as of the date of publishing. HempWood also sells carving blocks, cabinets, and kits to make your own table. Prices for table kits range from $175 to $300. Jul 5, 2021 […] > Is Hemp Woo…
I want to like hempwood but the price needs to come down. Hopefully it will as production increases.
Re: Hardened wood as a renewable alternative to steel and plastic
#19Can'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?
Not sure if this is exactly the same but cross laminated timber (CLT) is already being used for constructing all kinds of buildings.
Executive summary of its qualities:
- Stronger and lighter than concrete. Think thinner floors and walls but with similar strength and load-bearing capability; less tonnes of material to move around. That alone is a big advantage.
- Several buildings across the world already exist; more are being planned. So, its beyond the proof of concept stage but still early days in terms of adoption.
- A few ambitious skyscrapers are being planned that will be built using it. So, instead of steel and concrete, these would be mostly made out of wood. Needless to say these will be very prestigious buildings; which should count as an advantage as well.
- While it uses glue, it's not nearly as much as e.g. MDF; in the order of a few percent. It's mostly wood basically. The cross lamination is what gives it its strength. E.g. toxicity associated with MDF and similar materials is not much of a concern.
- It's quite safe from e.g. a fire safety point of view and should also be usable in e.g. earthquake zones like Tokyo (which has a 350 CLT building planned). It's also quite durable (e.g. rot & humidity).
- It's a nice way to capture carbon, obviously. As opposed to dumping massive amounts of carbon needed for e.g. concrete production and transport. So, very environmentally friendly. Also after demolition (it's wood basically).
- You can work it using traditional wood working tools. Hammers, nails, saws, etc.
- You can do a lot of this offsite as well and ship prefab components to the construction site. So, there is less waste on site of material that needs to be removed after. Existing construction work involves extensive use of power tools and produces enormous amounts of waste.
- As a side effect of that: faster & more efficient construction. This is a big plus point as construction sites in busy cities are very disruptive.
- Short term its somewhat more expensive than traditional construction methods (concrete). But long term there is plenty of potential for cost reductions due to scaling, learning effects, etc. Large scale CLT production simply does not yet exist.
- The wood needed to produce it could feasibly be produced using sustainable foresting. But obviously that would be a sector that would need to be scaled up. However, if done right, that in itself is a good thing. It would basically mean countries investing in sustainable forestry, which has all sorts of nice side effects in terms of carbon capture, nature, and jobs.
The biggest hurdles are not so much technical feasibility but just changing an industry used to a particular way of working along with its supply chains to work in different ways using different supply chains. That kind of thing does not happen overnight. But with the advantages listed above, there is plenty of interest in this.
Re: Hardened wood as a renewable alternative to steel and plastic
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
“Except, of course, cryptocurrency isn't nearly as useful as, say, desalinated water.”
Heresy!!