Treesearch

Fungi grow dense webs of mycelia that naturally form a 3D matrix, binding together any particles they encounter during growth. This property has been successfully exploited to create 100% bio-based lignocellulosic composites bound with mycelia. In this chapter, we review recent research on production procedures and performance of these composites. We identify various roles of mycelia in the composite performance and mechanisms by which mycelia contribute to composite properties. In addition, we point out critical knowledge gaps and identify commercial challenges facing this technology.

Cellulose nanofibril suspensions present a broad range of particle morphology and dimensions spanning from millimeters to nanometers. As a result, direct imaging and indirect scattering approaches are used to quantify the morphology and dimensions across different length scales. There is a notable gap in detailed size measurement of cellulose nanofibrils produced from the mechanical refining of woody plants, which makes the required characterization for production control, grade specification, product specifications, and compliance with safety/regulatory requirements difficult. The...

Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) has emerged as a promising technology for converting biomass into high-performance carbon materials, offering potential sustainable solutions for CO2 capture. HTC operates under moderate conditions to produce hydrochar with enhanced porosity and surface functionality ideally suited for CO2 sequestration. Recently developed nitrogen-doped and alkali metal-activated hydrochars have improved adsorption capacities, and CO2 capture capacities up to 320 mg/g, surpassing some traditional materials like zeolites. However, despite its potential to contribute...

Lignin, which is typically available as a by-product of the pulping process and biomass biorefinery, is a sustainable feedstock for production of carbon fuels and materials. Here, we report a novel coupled electrochemical system to achieve efficient production of H2O2 with air as the oxygen source and lignin as a carbon-based catalyst precursor and electron donor (fuel). By using a direct lignin fuel cell to power a paired electrolytic cell, the endogenous electrons of lignin can be transferred to air, resulting in the formation of H2O2 via a two-electron oxygen reduction reaction. A...

A timber frame with mass ply lam (MPL) beams and columns and a timber buckling restrained brace (TBRB) was subjected to cyclic loads according to the AISC qualification procedure for conventional buckling restrained braces (BRB). The TBRBs met the requirements for qualification of conventional BRBs; the steel core reached a maximum strain of 3.l% in both tension and compression and the braced frame reached a maximum drift ratio of 4.5%. A numerical OpenSees model of a single-story timber frame with a TBRB was built and validated by TBRB component tests and MPL beam-column joint tests with...

The Log Recovery Analysis Tool (LORCAT) was developed to enable hardwood sawmill personnel, researchers, and other individuals interested in creating lumber and by-products from logs to examine the impacts of and the relationships among various factors that influence lumber recovery in hardwood mills. LORCAT is a spreadsheet-based tool that was developed for use with either Excel (Microsoft Inc., Redmond, Washington, USA) or LibreOffice (The Document Foundation, Berlin, Germany) spreadsheet applications. LORCAT allows users to interactively view the results from a single log or view trends...

In plant cell walls, lignin, cellulose, and the hemicelluloses form intricate three-dimensional structures. Owing to its complexity, lignin often acts as a bottleneck for the efficient utilization of polysaccharide components as biochemicals and functional materials. A promising approach to mitigate and/or overcome lignin recalcitrance is the qualitative and quantitative modification of lignin by genetic engineering. Feruloyl-CoA 6′-hydroxylase (F6′H1) is a 2-oxoglutaratedependent dioxygenase that catalyzes the conversion of feruloyl-CoA, one of the intermediates of the lignin biosynthetic...

Chirpine (Pinus roxburghii), also known as longleaf Indian pine, is the most tapped pine species in several Asian countries, including Nepal, for its high resin yield. Resin tapping in Chirpine trees has been a longstanding practice in mid-hills of Nepal for the last several decades. This study aimed to evaluate the social impacts of resin tapping from Chirpine forests on the rural socio-ecological dynamics of Nepal’s mid-hills. Using a representative sample of 302 forest users from 20 community forest user groups in three far-western districts, we applied the structural equation modeling...

The reliable measurement of cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) particle morphology is vital for ongoing CNC production optimization and application development. A semi-automatic image analysis program, SMART-AFM, was developed for CNC particle size measurements from atomic force microscopy (AFM) images and subsequently used to analyze the AFM images acquired from four laboratories that participated in the interlaboratory comparison (ILC) study by Bushell et al.. SMART-AFM demonstrated a 40 times faster analysis compared to the manual approach used in the ILC. A detailed image-to-image analysis...