A American corporation has developed a novel kind of wood, claiming it possesses up to 10 times the strength-to-weight ratio of steel, while also being six times lighter.
"Superwood" has recently become available as a commercial item, produced by InventWood, a firm co-established by material scientist Liangbing Hu.
More than ten years ago, Hu began a journey to transform one of the oldest construction materials ever used by humans. While employed at the University of Maryland's Center for Materials Innovation, Hu, who is now aprofessor at Yale, discovered new methods to rework wood. He even created ittransparentby eliminating a portion of one of its essential elements, lignin, which is responsible for wood's color and part of its structural integrity.
Nevertheless, his true objective was to enhance the strength of wood by utilizing cellulose, the primary element of plant fiber and "the most plentiful biopolymer on Earth," as stated by Hu.
The major advancement occurred in 2017, when Hu initially improved standard wood through chemical processing to boost its natural cellulose, transforming it into a more effective building material.
The wood was initially soaked in a mixture of water and specific chemicals, followed by being hot-pressed to compress it at the cellular level, resulting in a much denser material. After the week-long procedure, the final product had a strength-to-weight ratio "greater than that of many structural metals and alloys," as stated in the research.published in the journal Nature.
Now, following years of Hu refining the process and submitting more than 140 patents, Superwood has become available on the market.
"From a chemical and practical perspective, it's wood," said Alex Lau, CEO of InventWood, who began working with the company in 2021. In construction, this could lead to structures that are potentially four times lighter than current ones, Lau mentioned, which would make them more resistant to earthquakes, as well as less demanding on foundations, thus speeding up and simplifying the building process.
It resembles wood in appearance, and when tested, it acts like wood," Lau said, "except it is significantly stronger and more advantageous than wood in nearly every aspect that has been evaluated.
Competitive with steel?
InventWood is producing Superwood at its facility in Frederick, Maryland, and while the manufacturing process now takes hours instead of days, Lau mentioned that it will still require some time to increase production.
At first, the company intends to concentrate on exterior applications like decking and cladding, then will shift its attention to interior uses such as wall paneling, flooring, and household furniture at some point next year.
"People often say that furniture deteriorates over time, and this is usually due to sagging or breaking at the joints, which are typically made of metal because wood lacks sufficient strength," said Lau. Superwood could be used to replace these components, he added, as well as screws, nails, and other metal fasteners.
In the end, Lau envisions that a whole building might be made from Superwood, although this would need further investigation.
Similar to Hu's initial experiment, the wood is reinforced through a chemical process that modifies the fundamental structure of the cellulose and is compressed tightly without rebounding. "In theory, we can use any type of wooden material," Lau explained. "In practice, we have tested it with 19 different types of wood as well as bamboo, and it has worked on all of them."
InventWood claims that Superwood is as much as 20 times stronger than typical wood and up to 10 times more resistant to dents, as the inherent porous structure of the wood has been compressed and reinforced. This makes it immune to fungi and pests. Additionally, it achieves the top score in standard fire resistance tests.
Superwood is currently more expensive than traditional wood and has a greater carbon footprint during production, but Lau mentioned that it emits 90% less carbon compared to steel manufacturing.
He mentioned that the goal is "not to be less expensive than wood, but to compete with steel," once production increases..
Timber trend
Other forms of engineered wood have been used as building materials for many years, but InventWood states that these are merely pieces of wood reassembled and bonded with adhesives, as opposed to wood that has been modified on a molecular scale like Superwood.
Timber construction has seen a revival in recent years, with wood now being used to construct high-rise buildings. The city of Milwaukee, which is home to the world's tallest timber tower, the 284-foot (87-meter) Ascent MKE, has announcedplansto construct an even more towering structure, reaching an impressive 600 feet (183 meters) in height.
Currently, concrete is the most widely used construction material on the planet, and although its production has remained stable in recent years, creating concretegenerates7 percent of the world's total carbon emissions.
Philip Oldfield, an architecture professor and director of the School of Built Environment at the University of New South Wales in Australia, who is not associated with InventWood, stated that wood offers environmental advantages compared to numerous other construction materials because its manufacturing processes are less demanding than those for steel and concrete, and wood retains CO2 in its woody structure through photosynthesis. "Wood products can be viewed as a long-term method of carbon storage, and using wood in construction could enable our cities to 'sequester' carbon emissions within buildings for extended periods," he mentioned.
Nevertheless, he notes that current engineered wood products are already challenging steel and concrete. "The obstacle to more timber structures isn't primarily the demand for greater strength," he stated, "it's because the construction sector is cautious and resistant to change."
To observe more wood in structures, he claimed, we require enhanced education, demonstration projects, and refined regulatory systems: "However, advanced timber materials such as this Superwood could enable architects to design longer spans and more resilient surfaces using wood, which would definitely be advantageous and could encourage increased use of timber."
Correction: The title of this article has been revised to better explain the power of Superwood.
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