However, achieving true sustainability in engineered wood has been challenging due to the reliance on volatile chemicals, significant energy consumption, and the production of considerable waste. New genetically modified wood can accumulate carbon and lower emissions. The researchers tackled this issue by editing a single gene in live poplar trees, allowing the trees to grow wood that is ready for engineering without the need for processing. The findings were published online on August 12, 2024, in the journal Matter.
| Date | August 12, 2024 |
| Source | University of Maryland |
| Summary | Scientists have genetically engineered poplar trees to produce high-performance structural wood without the need for chemical treatments or energy-intensive processing.” |
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Researchers at the University of Maryland have genetically engineered poplar trees to produce high-performance structural wood without the need for chemicals or energy-intensive processing. Engineered wood, made from traditional wood, is often viewed as a renewable alternative to traditional building materials like steel, cement, glass, and plastic. It also has the potential to store carbon for extended periods, as it resists deterioration, making it valuable in efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
How New genetically modified wood can accumulate carbon and lower emissions
- Researchers combines genetic engineering and wood engineering to sustainably sequester and store carbon in a resilient super wood form.
- Carbon sequestration is crucial in fight against climate change, and such engineered wood could play a significant role in the future bioeconomy.
- Before wood can be treated to gain structural properties like increased strength or UV resistance, which allows it to replace steel or concrete, it must be stripped of one of its main components, lignin.
- Previously, UMD researchers developed methods to remove lignin using various chemicals, while others explored enzymes and microwave technology.
- In this new research, the team aimed to create a method that avoids chemicals, eliminates chemical waste, and reduces energy consumption.
- By using a technology called base editing to knock out a key gene known as 4CL1, the researchers were able to grow poplar trees with 12.8% lower lignin content than wild-type poplars, comparable to the results of chemical treatments used in engineered wood products.
- Researchers grew the genetically modified trees alongside unmodified ones in a greenhouse for six months.
- They observed no differences in growth rates or significant structural differences between the modified and unmodified trees.
- To test the viability of their genetically modified poplar, the team used it to produce small samples of high-strength compressed wood similar to particle board, commonly used in furniture construction.
- Compressed wood is made by soaking wood in water under a vacuum and then hot-pressing it until it is nearly one-fifth of its original thickness, which increases the density of the wood fibers.
- In natural wood, lignin helps cells maintain their structure and prevents them from being compressed. The lower lignin content of chemically treated or genetically modified wood allows the cells to compress more densely, increasing the strength of the final product.
- To evaluate the performance of their genetically modified trees, the team also produced compressed wood from natural poplar using untreated wood and wood treated with the traditional chemical process to reduce lignin content.
- Researchers found that the compressed genetically modified poplar performed on par with chemically processed natural wood. Both were denser and more than 1.5 times stronger than compressed, untreated, natural wood.
- The tensile strength of the compressed genetically modified wood was comparable to that of aluminum alloy 6061 and the chemically treated compressed wood.
- This work paves the way for producing a variety of building products in a low-cost, environmentally sustainable manner, at a scale that could play a crucial role in the fight against climate change.
- Thus researchers discovered new genetically modified wood can accumulate carbon and lower emissions.