Treesearch

Although cellulose nanomaterials have promising properties and performance in a wide application space, one hinderance to their wide scale industrial application has been associated with their economics of dewatering and drying and the ability to redisperse them back into suspension without introducing agglomerates or lose of yield. The present work investigates the dewatering of aqueous suspensions of cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) using ultrasound as a potentially low-cost, non-thermal, and scalable alternative to traditional heat-based drying methods such as spray drying. Specifically, we...

Wood identification is vitally important for ensuring the legality of North American hardwood value chains. Computer vision wood identification (CVWID) systems can identify wood without necessitating costly and time-consuming off-site visual inspections by highly trained wood anatomists. Previous work by Ravindran and colleagues presented macroscopic CVWID models for identification of North American diffuse porous hardwoods from 22 wood anatomically informed classes using the open-source XyloTron platform. This manuscript expands on that work by training and evaluating complementary...

Acoustic inspection is a reliable tool for assessing biological deterioration in wood. As wood decays, several mechanical properties are negatively affected. A variety of acoustic techniques have been developed to identify, and in some cases quantify, the extent to which the presence of decay has altered the wood. Knowledge of the extent of decay allows an inspector to estimate strength loss of the wood structure. This report serves as an introduction to acoustic inspection of biologically deteriorated wood. Basic acoustic techniques are described. Percentage reductions of wood mechanical...

April 2022 data softness was widespread, with only the housing under construction and private residential construction spending categories positive on a monthover-month basis. Year-over-year data were better; however, single-family permits were negative again. This marks the third month in 2022 of single-family starts declining, and permits also have decreased for two consecutive months. This suggests further moderation in single-family activity in the upcoming months. Completions continue to be restrained due to the inaccessibility of building materials and products, combined with other...

High density polyethylene (HDPE) is widely used in composite industry as a host polymer because of its low cost and competitive mechanical properties. However, the addition of hydrophilic reinforcing nanofillers in HDPE-based composites is challenging and often requires chemical treatment. This study explored the addition of coupling agent maleic anhydride (MA) for improving the dispersion of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and nano zinc oxide (ZnO) in HDPE matrix, using two separate methods. MA grafted HDPE (MAPE) and HDPE with MA powder (HDPE-MA) were melt compounded with CNCs and ZnO....

This study compared oxidative delignification of birch kraft pulp fibers to pulp fibers from acid hydrotropic fractionation (AHF) using p-toluenesulfonic acid (p-TsOH). Under oxygen delignification at 20% consistency, AHF pulps with lower hemicellulose content showed higher delignification than kraft pulps with similar lignin content despite its residual lignin (cellulosic enzymatic lignin, CEL) being less reactive with fewer β-O-4 ether aryl linkages based on 2D13C-1 H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The water retention value (WRV) of AHF pulp fibers, a measure of fiber...

Wood modifications are becoming popular as a way to enhance the performance of wood, either to make it more durable, improve the performance of wood, or give it new functionality as a multifunctional or smart material. While wood modifications have been examined since the early 1900s, the topic has become a dominant area of study in wood science over the past decade. This review summarizes recent advances and provides future perspective on a selection of wood modifications, i.e., the methods that are currently commercialized (acetylation, furfurylation, and thermal modification), a...

Borate solution was used to treat two sets of Douglas-fr wood samples, one by spraying cross-laminated timbers (CLT) and another set by dip-treating wood in solutions at different retentions. A novel model was developed to explain and predict borate uptake based on dip-treatment parameters. Small-scale CLT samples were prepared using commercial emulsion polymer isocyanate (EPI) and polyurethane (PU) adhesive with dip-treated wood. The effect of adhesive and borate retention on CLT samples were evaluated through adhesion, fire, termite, and decay tests. The adhesion strength of wood was...

In aggregate, March 2022 housing data were mostly positive. Housing starts were buoyed by multifamily starts. Total starts were at the greatest level since 2006, with single-family starts declining. Total permits remained subdued; single-family permits decreased, which may be a result of the difficulties in completing houses. Total housing units under construction were the most since March 1973. Housing completions also remained problematic as completions were restrained due to building materials and product shortages, combined with other factors. The disparity between the number of houses...

A collaborative above-ground protected termite field test was initiated by FPInnovations and the USDA Forest Service at sites in Ontario and Mississippi. The aims of the experiment were to compare the rate of attack in protected, above-ground exposures by the subterranean termite species, Reticulitermes flavipes, between northern (Ontario) and southern (Mississippi) test sites and to generate performance data to understand the resistance to termites of selected naturally durable North American species. After 5-years of exposure, termite attack was greater in untreated pine sapwood controls...