Wood pulp weighs just one fifth of steel and is up to five times stronger.

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Researchers and auto component makers say a material made from wood pulp weighs just one fifth of steel and is up to five times stronger.

The material, cellulose nanofibres, could become a viable alternative to steel in the decades ahead and could also be used in aviation, they say.

Experts are currently developing a prototype car using cellulose nanofibre-based parts to be completed in 2020.

Researchers at Kyoto University and major parts suppliers such as Denso Corp, Toyota's biggest supplier, and DaikyoNishikawa Corp, are working with plastics incorporated with the nanofibres.

They are made by breaking down wood pulp fibres into several hundredths of a micron (one thousandth of a millimetre).

Cellulose nanofibres have been used in a variety of products ranging from ink to transparent displays.

But their potential use in cars has been enabled by the 'Kyoto Process', under which chemically treated wood fibres are kneaded into plastics while simultaneously being broken down into nanofibres.

This slashes the cost of production to roughly one-fifth that of other processes.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-japan-wood-idUSKCN1AU2FX

 

[qubit]

Sounds good, but I can just see it having problems with rot caused by water and biodegradation.

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

 

[therealmeep]

Queue the 70's wood panel station wagons...

 

[MIRTAZAPINE]

When I read that is wood I was thinking of the wooden wonder fighter bomber the de havilland mosquito. I wonder if this would be a viable material for aircraft especially jets. A modern version of the de Havilland.

Ninja edit: Just read the article. They do consider aircraft. Just imagine wooden jet aircraft. This material should be better than plywood used in previous wooden aircraft design

 

[thesmokingman]

Probably leagues cheaper than carbon fiber.

 

[R-T-B]

Probably leagues cheaper than carbon fiber.

and leagues less fashionable...

 

[xkm1948]

Cellulose you say, there are thousands of microbes ranging from bacteria to archaea to fungi that LIVES on cellulose. No matter what structure you organized the material into, the microbes will find a way to break them down. So yeah,maybe not the best material to build a car.

Unless they are only planning to let you use it for less than 3yrs and force you to upgrade. Then it makes perfect sense.

 

[dorsetknob]

will this mean the end of commercial Darwin's bark spider Silk farming ?
and their silk which is the toughest biological material ever studied, over ten times tougher than a similarly-sized piece of Kevlar.

wilki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin's_bark_spider

 

[thesmokingman]

and leagues less fashionable...

Ah, carbon looks the way it looks because ppl have learned to equate its raw look with cool. But it doesn't have to have the raw look, ie. there is such a thing as paint. Though just thinking wood pulp doesn't have quite the same ring to it as crab-on fiber! Oh think of all those memes, carbon is hard to damage, will have to be converted to wood.

 

[Bones]

Sounds good, but I can just see it having problems with rot caused by water and biodegradation.

Just add some paint for coloring to a big can of Thompson's water seal and have at it.