
Stronger than aluminum, a heavily altered wood cools passively - rbanffy
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/05/chemically-treated-wood-could-send-excess-heat-to-space/
======
pjc50
> But it gets better. The sugars in cellulose are effective emitters of
> infrared radiation, and they do so in two areas of the spectrum where none
> of our atmospheric gases is able to reabsorb it. The end result is that, if
> the treated wood absorbs some of the heat of a structure, wood can radiate
> it away so that it leaves the planet entirely.

This is the best bit. Put enough of this stuff on roofs and it can _directly_
mitigate the greenhouse effect, by emitting IR that goes through the
atmosphere and off into space.

~~~
megous
I suspect roofs are about 0% of the Earth's surface.

~~~
rbanffy
It'd reduce energy consumption for air conditioning. Also, while rooftops are
a small part of the global Earth surface (75% of it is not really a good place
to put roofs on), the figure is much higher in cities and urban areas where,
and it's not a coincidence, we spend a lot of energy keeping things cool.

Let's not forget cellulose is mostly made of CO2 removed from the atmosphere,
which also helps a bit.

The only way it'd be better is if it were also a good material to build PV
panels with.

~~~
megous
It will not make much difference if it's reflected to space or not, though.

~~~
ricardobeat
Of course it will. This is the idea behind space mirrors - reflecting 1% of
sunlight is enough to completely counteract global warming. The radiation has
to leave the atmosphere though.

~~~
HillaryBriss
as far as reflection goes, whenever I see a satellite photo of Africa and I
look at the bright, sandy Sahara Desert, I always wonder: does it help? or
does it hurt?

~~~
rbanffy
You should see it in infrared

~~~
HillaryBriss
ah! that would be interesting!

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captainredbeard
“the process involves dumping the wood in concentrated hydrogen peroxide and
boiling it. While I wouldn't want to drink boiling, concentrated hydrogen
peroxide, it's not an especially difficult chemical to handle safely.”

Diluted hydrogen peroxide is safe but in concentrated form it is one of the
most dangerous substances. Early rocketry experiments used it as an oxidizer
and it’s generally considered too unsafe.

~~~
avmich
[https://yarchive.net/space/rocket/fuels/peroxide.html](https://yarchive.net/space/rocket/fuels/peroxide.html)

While there are some storage headaches -- the stuff decomposes slowly no
matter what you do, so you must provide for tank venting -- otherwise peroxide
is much easier and safer to handle. Its bad reputation is half outright myth
and half the result of 1940s experience with seriously impure peroxide. To
quote a friend, a rocket-propulsion professional, who investigated the matter
as part of a study some years ago:

"As far as we could find out, the stories about problems with peroxide were
just that, stories... Peroxide, now, seems to only very rarely do anything
exciting, at all. And, even then, it seems to never do many of the things
attributed to it in the stories."

Henry Spencer

~~~
dsr_
That would be this Henry Spencer:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Spencer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Spencer)
to bring in some hackish context.

~~~
DrScump
I still remember Henry's contributions on comp.lang.c _thirty years ago_.

------
Animats
This is a lot like "transparent wood".[1] The lignin is removed as the first
step. The transparent wood people put a clear polymer in.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transparent_wood_composites](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transparent_wood_composites)

~~~
goodmachine
Epic video by NileRed trying to make transparent wood
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1H-323d838](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1H-323d838)

~~~
time0ut
Thought of this when I read the article. Probably similar process.

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inflatableDodo
I wonder how similar it is to Roechling's Lignoprotect bulletproof densified
wood panels -
[https://www.roechling.com/industrial/products/composites/gfr...](https://www.roechling.com/industrial/products/composites/gfrp-
cfrp/ballistic-panels/)

edit - Since reading about densified wood, I have been wondering about if you
can get paper to join to itself using pressure and the right chemicals. If so,
you could form it into tubes by rolling it round a metal bar, and maybe even
make the laminated paper bicycle from Gibson's Virtual Light.

~~~
tmd83
Isn't that effectively the construction material for the ship Albatross in
'Robur the Conqueror' ?

~~~
wazoox
Absolutely, yes. Paper compressed with an hydraulic press.

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lippel82
"The researchers estimate that covering an apartment building with the treated
wood could save about 35 percent of the energy used for cooling." Is that
compared to the average building or a building covered with another kind of
white plating? Because the latter would be super impressive while the former
would mostly just state the obvious: white things don't heat up from sunlight
as much as non-white things.

~~~
abdullahkhalids
The difference between white and other colors is definitely not 35%. Less than
10% apparently for paints
[https://www.europhysicsnews.org/articles/epn/pdf/2007/01/epn...](https://www.europhysicsnews.org/articles/epn/pdf/2007/01/epn07102.pdf)

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dr_dshiv
The challenge of lignin decomposition is why we have (most) coal.

[https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/phenomena/2016/01...](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/phenomena/2016/01/07/the-
fantastically-strange-origin-of-most-coal-on-earth/)

~~~
Ericson2314
And cellulose it said, but suitable microbes have since evolved?

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wheybags
Is it still flammable though? I can't see anyone cladding an apartment
building in flammable material, especially not after the Grenfell tower fire.

~~~
mdorazio
It seems lignin actually has flame retardant properties, so unless they are
adding some additional chemicals to make this wood fire resistant, it is
probably even more flammable than normal wood.

~~~
vanderZwan
Yeah, cellulose is highly flammable. That's why early film was so problematic

~~~
msds
Well, the big reason early film is kind dangerous is that it was
nitrocellulose, and so had plenty of nitro-groups just waiting to have a
little fun...

~~~
vanderZwan
Ah, my bad. Thank you for correcting me!

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harshaw
Wonder if this can be worked like normal wood and can be produced in the
standard dimensions. One of the advantages of azek and other PVC sidings is
that you can use your normal tools.

~~~
dsfyu404ed
You can cut aluminum using woodworking tools if you need to. Assuming it's
just for siding/roofing I see no reason a chop saw with an appropriate blade
couldn't cut it.

~~~
AngryData
Yeah, carbide blades will eat aluminum like butter. Just the other day I cut
off a 3" x 3" slab of aluminum block with my table saw in 3/4" cuts. Wasn't
sketchy, the saw didn't bog down at all, in fact ive cut woods that were far
more difficult than that solid aluminum block.

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winchling
How does its lifetime compare with ordinary wood? Does it rot easily?

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tomatsu
I wonder if you can still cut and engrave it with a CO2 laser (10.6 µm). It
might be a very interesting material to work with.

