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Good luck finding an oil rich asteroid. Or an asteroid with lush virgin hardwood forests. As far as I know there isn't a shortage of iron ore. This hardened
by jandrese 5y ago
Good luck finding an oil rich asteroid. Or an asteroid with lush virgin hardwood forests.
As far as I know there isn't a shortage of iron ore. This hardened wood is solving a problem that we don't have yet.
- account_b 5y agoAFAIK it does solve a problem with steel, tho: Energy expenditure of production. You cannot make steel with heat generated electrically. At least not directly. Energy dense fossil hydrocarbons are powering furnaces today. You may replace that with generated hydrogen, but I am not sure the math checks out on a global scale.
- mikeg8 5y agoI believe one of the problems it solves is that steel has a tendency to erode over time. Hence major infrastructure failures. If structural elements can be made to the same strength as steel, using HW, which will not erode at the same pace of steel, than the expected lifetime of a structure increases and that is solving a real problem.
- jandrese 5y agoWood is also well known for degrading over time. Their process may prevent some or all of that, but it has yet to be shown from what I've seen.