Engineered wood is often seen as a renewable replacement for traditional building materials like steel…It also has the potential to store carbon for a longer time than traditional wood because it can resist deterioration…
But the hurdle to true sustainability in engineered wood is that it requires processing with volatile chemicals and a significant amount of energy, and produces considerable waste…
Using a technology called base editing to knock out a key gene called 4CL1, the researchers were able to grow poplars with 12.8% lower lignin content than wild-type poplar trees. This is comparable to the chemical treatments used in processing engineered wood products…
They found that the compressed genetically modified poplar performed on a par with the chemically processed natural wood. Both were denser and more than 1.5 times stronger than compressed, untreated, natural wood.
DB2