Posted on 08/23/2012 6:21:45 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer
THE hottest new material in town is light, strong and conducts electricity. What's more, it's been around a long, long time.
Nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC), which is produced by processing wood pulp, is being hailed as the latest wonder material. Japan-based Pioneer Electronics is applying it to the next generation of flexible electronic displays. IBM is using it to create components for computers. Even the US army is getting in on the act, using it to make lightweight body armour and ballistic glass.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
- Nanocrystalline cellulose can be added to or replace many plastics and hard to recycle materials.
- They are strong enough to replace machined parts with cheaper cast polymer parts.
- Cellulose is one of the most common organic compounds in the world, created by the natural world. Not only trees, but switchgrass, or nearly any dry land plan contains it. Nanocrystals can be taken out of current waste and converted into something useful.
- Manufacturing from source materials can be local. If we can create enormous amounts of nanocrystals, and we use the end products, then why ship somewhere else to manufacture?
Cellulose is a pretty cool material. Flexible, very strong, and extremely resistant to corrosion too. It goes right through the digestive tract of most animals, which is why when you eat kernel corn, they end up in the bowl the next day, intact. Gotta have multiple stomachs if you want to break that stuff down.
This is probably better than trying to make cellular ethanol out of it.
Well then, got plenty of old tree stumps and cut up logs they can have in our yard.
Have they figured out a way to keep mold from growing on these electronics made out of Nanocrystalline cellulose ? termites ?
So ? instead of grinding this stuff up with machines ( save labor and electric cost ) all they have to do is follow cows around and scoop up the poop ?
Not to mention parasites, fungi and other crud that loves cellulose?
Like GMO’s... it will take several generations to figure out if this , too is another FUBAR.
Interesting, but almost too good to be true.
Dude, it’s been around forever. Added to chain restaurant hamburger meat. Delicious, too!
Since when is the government supposed to own factories?
No, quite the opposite. The cows CAN break it down on the molecular level, since they have the digestive system to handle it. So I don’t think their poop would contain much cellulose at all, it will have mostly been transformed into simpler sugars.
Reminds me of the scene in Clear And Present Danger when Harrison Ford and the bad guy simultaneously discover we dropped Cellulose-encased bombs on the drug lords. I thought it was far-fetched but hey, maybe not.
If this is purified cellulose, it’ll burn like a mother. Seems to me that the Bible talks about armor being burned for fuel (Isaiah 9:5, ASV)
> Even the US army is getting in on the act, using it to make lightweight body armour and ballistic glass.
The Chinese had paper (cellulose) body armor 2.5K years ago and it was good against swords, spears and arrows. Lots of layers are hard to penetrate.
I really don’t know. There’s something combustible in there for sure, but I’m thinking that is methane more than anything else.
Really, do we need to go down that road? They use dung for fuel in Africa, because that’s all they’ve got. I don’t think we’re at that point yet!
Probably just creative writing. The chitin armor on bugs and crustaceans is very similar to cellulose, so you could probably build a tough shell out of it for a bomb, I just don’t know why you would really want to.
Soylent clear is trees!
They're not supposed to, but they have been in the manufacturing business since Government Motors.. ;-)
Which according to Forbes, is headed down the dumper again...
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