Treesearch

In November, on a month-over-month basis, housing permits declined; this suggests further moderation in single-family activity in the upcoming months. The number of housing completions was the “bright” spot for housing construction. Other year-over-year and month-over-month data were mostly negative.

Concerns over climate change and fossil resources depletion are drivers for increasing efforts to global transition from fossil-based to biobased products. The development of bioenergy and bioproduct systems, however, faces challenges in terms of resource use, environmental impacts, and production costs. Thus, identifying key areas to reduce costs and environmental impacts of biobased products is crucial. Based on the review of recent literature, this study aims to provide insights into the technical feasibility, costs, and environmental impacts of biobased products produced from different...

Although highly desirable, the nature of wood-cellulose in its native state has remained difficult to comprehend. Contrary to the traditional acceptance of wood-cellulose being crystalline, in 2016, the authors’ research found that the cellulose was not crystalline. Here, additional evidence is presented that further supports the non-crystalline model. One of the key pieces of evidence was obtained by 64% H2SO4 hydrolysis of tension- and opposite-aspen woods (TW and OW, respectively). The TW (G-layer rich) yielded significant amount of CNCs (TW-CNCs, 20.7%), the OW yielded a much lower...

Due to concern over climate change, there is an increasing desire to limit new carbon dioxide emissions and to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Specific efforts include taxing carbon emissions, capping carbon emissions and selling emissions allowances, and rewarding activities that avoid new carbon emissions or that capture and store carbon from the atmosphere. Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is a relatively new product that enables mass timber construction to replace traditional construction materials in mid-to-high-rise buildings. Wood materials offer substantial “carbon benefits”...

This study evaluated biological resistance, water absorption, and total carbohydrate contents of carbonized woods by contact charring method followed by linseed oil submersion. Charred and control specimens were exposed in laboratory fungal resistance tests to two white – and two brownrot fungi and in mold resistance tests by spraying the surface with a mold spore-suspension comprised of three different mold species. Charred and control specimens were also evaluated for resistance to the eastern subterranean termites. To help understand biological durability results, carbohydrate content...

Measuring the size of cellulose nanomaterials can be challenging, especially in the case of branched entangled cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs). The International Organization for Standardization, Technical Committee 6, Task Group 1 - Cellulosic Nanomaterials, is exploring opportunities to develop standard methods for the measurement of CNF particle size and particle size distribution. This paper presents a summary of the available measuring techniques, responses from a survey on the measurement needs of CNF companies and researchers, and outcomes from an international workshop on cellulose...

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are biobased materials with many desirable properties such as high aspect ratio, mechanical strength, crystalline nature, and biodegradability. This study developed a commercial-scale process model of CNC production from wood pulp using sulfuric acid treatment and evaluated its techno-economic and environmental performance with and without acid recovery. The results indicated that CNC produced with acid recovery process was financially more profitable with higher project net present values than without acid recovery process but required higher capital which...

For the existence of biorefineries, a consistent supply of sustainable crop residues is critical. Crop residue removal may adversely affect the overall sustainability, i.e., soil productivity and economics of crop residue removal. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a tool or method to estimate the sustainable removal of crop residues which is critical to various stakeholders including farmers, biorefinery, and policymakers. We proposed a robust deep ensemble machine learning(ML) model to estimate soil sustainability indicators [i.e., soil-erosion-factor(SEF), soil-conditioning-index(SCI)...

The 3rd Mass Timber Research Needs Assessment was held on September 20–22, 2022, at a location nearby the USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory. The workshop was co-sponsored by the Forest Products Lab and WoodWorks. The purpose of the workshop was to gather a diverse group of people with expertise in mass timber, in particular cross-laminated timber, to discuss and prioritize the research needed to move the mass timber industry forward in North America. The workshop was attended by more than 130 design professionals, researchers, manufacturers, industry leaders, and government...

Specific heat capacity of red oak and Douglas fir was measured from 0°C to 438°C using differential scanning calorimetry to provide input parameters for fire modeling. Techniques that allow for measurement of the standard heat capacity, excluding the effects of heat of reaction, were explored. Results show the specific heat capacity of wood becomes nearly constant with increasing temperature once pyrolysis starts. Furthermore, for both species of woods, the heat capacity values level out at a higher temperature than leaves, with correspondingly higher final specific heat capacity values.