Treesearch

In the past 5 years, several accelerated test methods have been developed to measure the corrosion of metals in contact with wood. It is desirable to contrast these accelerated results against those of long term exposure tests. While there have been several published long-term exposure tests performed on metals in treated wood, the data from these studies could not be used as a comparative baseline because the formulations and retentions of the preservatives were not reported or the amount corrosion was presented as percent mass loss instead of a true corrosion rate because the surface...

Pilot data indicate that wood chip pretreatment with oxalic acid reduced the specific energy required to make thermomechanical pulp. A combined oxalic acid/bisulfite treatment resulted in 21% refiner energy savings and 13% increase in brightness for aspen. A low level of oxalic acid treatment was effective for spruce. Energy savings of 30% was observed with no significant change in strength properties. Adding bisulfite did not significantly increase the brightness of the spruce pulp. For pine, the optimum treatment was a moderate level of oxalic acid, which resulted in 34% energy savings...

This study applied Sulfite Pretreatment to Overcome Recalcitrance of Lignocelluloses (SPORL) to evaluate the potential of mountain pine beetle-killed lodgepole pine for ethanol production using conventional Saccharomyces cerevisiae without hydrolysate detoxification. The results indicate that the beetle-killed trees are more susceptible to SPORL pretreatment than live trees in addition to having enriched glucan and mannan content as reported in the literature. Ethanol yields of 200 and 250 L/metric ton wood were achieved from a live tree and a dead tree (four years after infestation)...

In 2010, the Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) celebrated its 100th anniversary — a significant milestone in its history. Throughout its century of public service, the FPL has conducted wood and fiber utilization research that contributes to the conservation and productivity of forest resources and to sustainably meeting the needs of people for forest products. Located in Madison, WI, the FPL has specifically focused on creating forest biomass utilization science and technology that simultaneously helps solve national problems and achieves national forest land management goals.

This chapter provides a synthesis of information on potential supply of forest biomass given needs for sustainable development of forestry. Sustainability includes maintenance of water supply, biodiversity, and carbon storage as well as timber products, community development, and recreation. Biomass removals can reduce fire hazard and insect and disease attack, restore forest composition and structure, enhance forest growth, provide revenue for treatments and communities, and offset greenhouse gas emissions. Biological limitations vary by forest condition, ownership, and how stands are...

The concept of producing cel¬lulosic biofuel, bioproducts, and chemicals using ligno¬celluloses in a biorefinery has been around for over a century. Renewed interest in the biorefinery concept has more recently arisen from concerns about climate change and the depletion of fossil fuels. Much research and progress has been made in the last three decades in the area of biochemical technology, with many breakthroughs. However, the realization of the biorefinery concept remains a challenge. It is a daunting task to (1) overcome the huge barriers in developing and commercializ¬ing new technologi...

The synthesis of cadmium sulfide (CdS), zinc sulfide (ZnS), and lead sulfide (PbS) nanoparticle chains on cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) templates can be accomplished by the reaction of the precursor salts. The use of a cationic surfactant, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), was critical for the synthesis of well-defined semiconductor nanoparticle chains on the surface of the CNCs. The semiconductor nanoparticle particle size and packing density on CNC surface could be controlled by the variation of the precursor concentration and the pH of the salt solution.

The development of metrology for nanoparticles is a significant challenge. Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are one group of nanoparticles that have high potential economic value but present substantial challenges to the development of the measurement science. Even the largest trees owe their strength to this newly appreciated class of nanomaterials. Cellulose is the world’s most abundant natural, renewable, biodegradable polymer. Cellulose occurs as whisker-like microfibrils that are biosynthesized and deposited in plant material in a continuous fashion. The nanocrystals are isolated by...

Cellulose nanocrystals, a potential base material for green nanocomposites, are ordered bundles of cellulose chains. The properties of these chains have been studied for many years using atomic-scale modeling. However, model predictions are difficult to interpret because of the significant dependence of predicted properties on model details. The goal of this study is to begin to understand these dependencies. We focus on the investigation on model cellulose chains with different lengths and having both periodic and nonperiodic boundary conditions, and predict elasticity in the axial...

Small, low molecular weight, non-enzymatic compounds have been linked to the early stages of brown rot decay as the enzymes involved with holocellulose degradation are too large to penetrate the S3 layer of intact wood cells. We investigated the most notable of these compounds, i.e. hydrogen peroxide, iron, and oxalic acid. The former two are involved in the Fenton reaction in which they react to form hydroxyl radicals, which cause an accelerated depolymerization in cotton cellulose. We found the same reaction to be caused by both iron Fe3+ and Fe2+. A 10 mM oxalic acid solution showed...