10 times stronger than steel – “super wood” created
A US company has created a new type of wood that it says has up to 10 times the strength-to-weight ratio of steel, while being up to six times lighter. The new material, called "Superwood," is entering the commercial market through InventWood, a company founded by materials scientist Liangbing Hu, A2 CNN reports.
Hu, currently a professor at Yale University, began his research on wood more than a decade ago at the Center for Materials Innovation at the University of Maryland. He had a clear goal: to make wood stronger than ever before, improving on a material that humanity has used for thousands of years. In the process, Hu even managed to make wood transparent by removing some of the lignin, the compound that gives wood its color and some of its strength.
However, his main goal was to strengthen wood through cellulose, the main component of plant fibers, which is “the most abundant biopolymer on the planet.” The turning point came in 2017, when Hu and his team managed to chemically treat wood to enhance the natural cellulose, creating a much more durable building material.
The process involves boiling wood in a mixture of water and certain chemicals, then pressing it with heat to make it more compact at the cellular level. The result is a much denser material, with a strength that exceeds most structural metals, according to the study published in the journal Nature.
After more than 140 patents and numerous improvements, Hu and InventWood have accelerated the process, turning it into industrial production. According to the company's CEO, Alex Lau, Superwood "looks and behaves like regular wood, but is stronger and more durable in every aspect tested."
In construction, Superwood could enable structures to be up to four times lighter, which would make buildings more earthquake-resistant and easier to erect on foundations. It is also 20 times stronger and 10 times more scratch-resistant than regular wood, because its porous structure has been eliminated. This makes it impervious to fungi and insects, while official tests have rated it highly resistant to fire.
Initially, InventWood aims to use Superwood in exterior cladding, decking and facades, before expanding into interior applications such as flooring, wall panels and furniture. Lau explains that many pieces of furniture are damaged by metal parts that weaken over time – a problem that Superwood can solve, even replacing screws, nails and metal fasteners.
Although it currently costs more than regular wood and has a larger carbon footprint in production, the company claims that its production emits 90% less carbon than steel. Its goal is not to be cheaper than wood, but to compete with steel in quality and performance.
Architectural experts, such as Australian professor Philip Oldfield, see this as a major step towards more sustainable construction, as wooden buildings store carbon dioxide for long periods. According to him, the main obstacle is not a lack of strength, but the industry's reluctance to accept new technologies.
If this technology spreads, Superwood could usher in the era of wooden buildings stronger than steel, making construction easier, safer and more environmentally friendly.
