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Interest in renewable biomass for fuel, chemicals, and materials is high (e.g., Rocha et al. 2002), as many products currently derived from petrochemicals can be produced from biomass (Sims et al. 2006). Biomass can be converted into many energy products and chemicals: e.g., alcohol by fermenting cellulose, charcoal, bio-oil, and gases by biomass pyrolysis (Khesghi et al. 2000). Biomass and biofuels technologies with the most potential in the United States include co-firing in Coal-fired power plants, integrated gasification combined-cycle units in forestry, and ethanol from hydrolysis of...

The thermoplastics within wood—plastic composites (WPCs) are known to experience significant time-dependent deformation or creep. In some formulations, creep deformation can be twice as much as the initial quasi-static strain in as little as 4 days. While extensive work has been done on the creep behavior of pure polymers, little information is available on the mechanical effects of mixing polymers with large amounts of woodbased or other bio-based fillers. As producers seek to develop structural WPC products that may be subjected to sustained loads, it is imperative that this creep...

This document provides guidance on wood preservation options in the context of historic preservation. Preserving wooden building materials is critical to historic preservation practitioners. Biodeterioration can be minimized through design, construction practices, maintenance, and, if necessary, by use of wood preservatives. Moisture is the primary cause of biodeterioration, and if exposure to moisture cannot be prevented, the application of preservatives or use of pressure-treated wood may be warranted. The Secretary of Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties...

To celebrate the 2012 International Year of Sustainable Energy for All, in this chapter we consider in some depth the sustainability of wood energy. To do so, we evaluate the traditional economic, environmental and social dimensions of the sustainability concept. We also address how public policy has influenced wood energy sustainability across the UNECE region.

Moisture sorption in wood-plastic composites (WPCs) affects their durability and dimensional stability. In certain outdoor exposures, the moisture properties of WPCs are altered due to e.g. cracks induced by swelling and shrinkage of the components, as well as UV degradation or biological attack. The aim of this work was to study the effect of different artificial ageing routes on the moisture sorption properties of WPCs. Extruded WPCs were prepared with either unmodified or acetylated wood and recycled high-density polyethylene (HDPE). The WPC samples were artificially aged involving...

Northern white ash had been the wood of choice for Major League Baseball (MLB) bats until the introduction of hard maple in the late 1990s. Since the introduction of maple to the game, there has been a perceived increase in the rate of bats to exhibit multi-piece failures (MPF)—both ash and maple. Lab and field data indicate that while a maple bat is as equally likely to crack as an ash bat, maple is three times more likely than ash to exhibit an MPF. In 2009 MLB implemented a number of additional regulations and inspection processes for the wood billets in an effort to reduce the MPF...

Biological durability is an important feature for wood-plastic composites (WPC) intended for outdoor applications. One route to achieving WPC products with increased biological durability is to use wood preservative agents in the formulation of the WPC. Another option could be to use a chemically modified wood component that already exhibits increased resistance to biological degradation. There is also a need to use biobased thermoplastics made from renewable resources, which would decrease the dependency on petrochemically-produced thermoplastics in the future. The objective of this study...

Wood is a complex biological structure, a composite of many cell types and chemistries acting together to serve the needs of living plant. Attempting to understand wood inthe context of wood technology, we have often overlooked the basic fact that wood evolved over the course of millions of years to serve three main functions in plants-conduction of water from the roots to the leaves, mechanical support of the plant body, and storage and synthesis of biochemicals. There is no property of wood–physical, mechanical, chemical, biological, or technological–not fundamentally derived from the...

In the summer of 2009, a full-scale midrise wood-frame building was tested under a series of simulated earthquakes on the world's largest shake table in Miki City, Japan. The objective of this series of tests was to validate a performance-based seismic design approach by qualitatively and quantitatively examining the building's seismic performance in terms of response kinematics and observed damage. This paper presents the results of detailed damage inspections following each test in a series offive shake table tests, and explains their qualitative synthesis to provide design method...

Wood specific gravity (SG) has long been used by foresters as an index for wood properties. More recently, SG has been widely used by ecologists as a plant functional trait and as a key variable in estimates of biomass. However, sampling wood to determine SG can be problematic; at present, the most common method is sampling with an increment borer to extract a bark-to-pith core-a difflcult task requiring considerable physical eflort and sometimes repeated borings to hit the pith, with potential to damagc the trunk of small trees. Here, we test a novel sampling method that reduces the...