Stronger Than Steel, Able to Stop a Speeding Bullet—It’s Super Wood!

Scientific American ^ | 2/7/18 | Sid Perkins

[IronJack]

Now if I could just figure out a market for the extracted lignins ...

[Hatteras]

But is it as strong as Morning Wood?...

[cschroe]

Happy happy joy joy to you dfwgator for the Ren & Stimpy reference!

[litehaus]

“their brains would be impenetrable.”

ALREADY the case as I see it...........

[NorthMountain]

Now I’m certain the scientists (I’m suspecting Hu is a real scientist) have or are figuring out how to make this new product as fire resistant as gypsum, metal or concrete.

I observe that Dr. Hu is at the University of Maryland. His colleagues in the A. James Clark School of Engineering include a very highly regarded school of Fire Protection Engineering. A little cross-department collaboration could pay off hugely.

Go Terps! Fear the Turtle!

[Manly Warrior]

Since the lignin’s are removed by heat, they likely become syngas, which , rerouted back to the heating system and burned, could reduce the amount of other energy needed to heat the wood....
Lignin’s are the stuff that make nice yellow and gold flames in a wood fire, but heated in a no-oxygen environment, they become useful as a natural gas source.

[CommerceComet]

When I buy a cord of wood, I want to buy it from that guy. You’d get a legitimate cord with him.

[Tenacious 1]

I think the big concern would be how flammable the dense wood is. If it is still very flammable, then a lot of uses where it could replace metals would be scratched off the list. It would be very useful for hurricane proofing homes, I would guess though.

As a fire resistant structure, wood is superior to steel. I know that sounds crazy and backwards. But it is true. Here is why. Wood maintains its structural integrity through the burn process. It only loses that integrity (strength) at a rate at which the fire consumes it's mass. Steel on the other hand loses it's strength as it heats. And because it is such a good conductor of heat, it's entire mass heats relatively uniformally compared to wood. This is why, in commercial buildings, steel structure often has to be coated in "fire proofing". The fire proofing is actually insulation to protect the steel from the heat of a fire.

[butlerweave]

Must be a Russian load of Wood ,LOL

[Daffynition]

Or someone w/ OCD. :)

[Daffynition]

For sure! I love neat looking wood piles. For some, it's becoming an art form.:)

[trisham]

Wow! Nice dog. :)

[Daffynition]

Guarding *gold* :)

[TheNext]

Better carpentry uses an accurate diameter drill bit and screws, not nails.

[Don W]

In pulp mills, the lignin extracted in the cooking process with “white liquor” from the wood fibre is concentrated then burned in recovery boilers. This produces the majority of power used in the mill. The remainder of the power needed is produced in power boilers that burn the waste (hog) from the cleaning/debarking processes.

IOW, they could likely produce a large fraction of the power needed by using the lignin as a fuel source.

[FrankR]

It was meant to be a little joke...sorry you missed it.

[Rebelbase]

"Transparent wood"

Scotty and Doc could have just gone to the sawmill.

[pas]

They added a little viagra and voila.

[CommerceComet]

It would be a shame to take wood from that work of art to burn it.

[trisham]

Wow! Amazing. :)