Been hearing about this new form of processed wood as a construction material.
It’s not the “mass timber” construction that I’ve posted about in the past – it’s yet another step in the evolution, with properties that make it look like a potential super material, like carbon fiber.
Lighter, stronger, and fire resistant, the material might be a carbon neutral, or carbon negative building material with multiple applications.
Yeah, more logging. That’s what we need.
And can we please replace those dumb forests with tree plantations?
This may turn out to be a great material and strategy for climate mitigation and other serious ecological and social problems. But it’s important to throughly vet the direct and indirect effects.
I’ve long thought that staggered pine tree cropping that produces A-frames and furniture was a useful way to store carbon, but it requires managing the tree waste rather than leaving it to rot in the open.
For every application that they find for this material, it’s value as a green product can be measured in terms of what it replaces. Even if it isn’t exactly a sink, and it displaces, say, a certain amount of steel, it can count on the [carbon] cost difference between producing steel and producing superwood.
It’s rarely a simple calculation, though.
I wonder if OSB and MDF sandwiched between layers of superwood could have ,ore uses as well as utilise scraps from timber.
Ah.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriented_strand_board
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium-density_fibreboard
Once (if) superwood is an established new product, I anticipate an explosion of experimenting with combinations for the best cost/benefit of various applications. One issue: Some home workshop tools won’t be able to handle the much harder material. And it would probably increase wear on industrial machines.
Give us Y chromosome types an excuse to get the Latest tools.