| Forestry
Modified wood product aims to save hardwood
forests from the axe
A hardwood substitute has been developed to effectively
end the need to log native forests.
esearchers from
the Flinders Centre
for NanoScale
Science &
Technology (CNST)
in South Australia
have collaborated with Australian
company 3RT Holdings Pty Ltd to
develop a method for converting
cheap pulpwood into a highly
sustainable tropical hardwood
substitute.
R
According to the World Wildlife
Fund about 46-58 thousand
square miles of forest are lost
each year
3Wood contains the same
properties as tropical hardwood
but maintains a stronger
dimensional stability and
eliminates wastage.
3RT managing director Peter
Torreele said the availability of the
new “smartwood” made it easier to
reduce the carbon footprint of the
manufacturing industry.
“There are a lot of materials with
a very high carbon footprint,
whereas wood has a very low
carbon footprint,” he said.
“Almost 40 per cent of all logs in
the world are being cut into chips
for the pulp and paper industry.
“This 3Wood makes the
harvesting of native forests,
unnecessary. We are aiming to
replace all applications where
today hardwood would be used if
it were available – furniture, floors,
frames and there are other
possibilities – it is endless.”
3Wood is made from a
complete log – includes
wastewood – and does not bleed
out or stain nearby floors or walls.
It is developed using ordinary
pulpwood – which is cheap and
accessible – and then a unique
water-based adhesive that reacts
with the fibres in the wood to make
it stronger.
This process is known as
lignocellulose manufacturing
technology, which works to
compress softwood to create a
new product that is denser, harder
and more durable than the
original.
The wood is then exposed to a
combination of temperature and
pressure to form it into a
rectangular shaped 3wood block
with dimensions of 120cm x 13cm
x 5cm.
Torreele said 3RT were in
discussions with various
companies around the world to
commercialise the product.
According to the World Wildlife
Fund about 46-58 thousand
square miles of forest are lost each
year.
CNST Director and codeveloper David Lewis said
3Wood helped eliminate wastage
and was a more environmentally
friendly alternative to other
products.
“We can manufacture blocks of
wood out of pulpwood with the
same strength as a 100-year-old
tree but without the problems,” he
said.
“There is a lot of wastage in
current hardwood production. If
you take a big tree only a small
percentage of that becomes
hardwood, the rest is chipped and
burned.
“We use a glue to stick it (the
wood-waste) together and
reconstitute it, get it into one block
and do it in an environmentally
friendly system. Our adhesive is
formaldehyde free.”
He said by changing its form it
was easier to manipulate the wood
and shape into different products
without the downsides of normal
hardwood.
Tertiary college TAFE SA has
designed a table from the new
product to help give the research
team a better understanding of the
properties and demonstrate its
effectiveness.
South Australia’s capital
Adelaide has three long-standing
public universities,
Flinders University, University of
South Australia, and the University
of Adelaide, eac h of which are
consistently rated highly in the
international higher education
rankings.
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40 | Farming Monthly | October 2016
www.farmingmonthly.co.uk