3 ms·

I’ve seen this before. It starts getting curious at the “chemical treatment” step.

• Animats 5y ago
  They're taking the lignite out of the cellulose, and then compressing the resulting soft mesh into a harder material. A few years ago, "transparent wood" was a thing. That was taking out the lignite, and putting some transparent plastic in. Not clear what's special about their compression step.
  • dan353hehe 5y ago
    The heated compression step allows the cellulose to form hydrogen bonds with other cellulose fibers, which strengthens the wood and makes the epoxy redundant.
    • Animats 5y ago
      That's all? No additives during the compression? And nobody figured this out before?
      • dan353hehe 5y ago
        It’s often the obvious and simple things that are overlooked, because they obviously won’t work :)
        • Animats 5y ago
          I'm surprised that this wasn't invented back when Henry Ford was trying to use agricultural products in autos. (The "hemp car" urban legend comes from that project.) Plastics were expensive, so there were attempts to use agricultural products as filler. The trouble was that cellular materials swell when wet. Plastic+ag waste didn't hold shape if used for exterior auto body parts. Same problem as Masonite, particle board, etc. With enough heat and pressure, does this new material avoid that problem? Or is it a "do not get wet" product.