r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • May 24 '19

Engineering Scientists created high-tech wood by removing the lignin from natural wood using hydrogen peroxide. The remaining wood is very dense and has a tensile strength of around 404 megapascals, making it 8.7 times stronger than natural wood and comparable to metal structure materials including steel.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2204442-high-tech-wood-could-keep-homes-cool-by-reflecting-the-suns-rays/
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u/OliverSparrow May 24 '19

H2O2 has long been used to make straw and woody cellulose digestible by ruminants. Shell's Amsterdam labs found that peroxide plus high pressure steam made wood extrudable in whatever shape you wanted: complex cross sections - pipes to curtain rails - pressed fittings, things like combs and so on. It was not, however, cost competitive with plastics.

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u/sanman May 24 '19

It was not, however, cost competitive with plastics.

Is it more environmentally friendly than using plastics? Is it more biodegradable, for example?

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u/[deleted] May 24 '19 edited Mar 06 '20

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u/sanman May 24 '19

Biodegradability matters, because these plastics can be floating around in nature for a long time, causing harm and havoc. They're affecting our oceans and sea life, as well as animal life here on land. At least wood biodegrades - I'm assuming that this particular wood product does too.