Wood including treated wood is used in many different materials including construction, furniture, and all sorts of materials applications. In the United States, every year around 10 to 15 billion cubic feet of wood is used in derived products and applications. However, several properties of wood and reconstituted biomass material such as its dimensional stability, pyrolytic behavior, hygroscopicity, biological decay, fireproofing, strength, energy storage etc. need to be enhanced economically, ideally via green pathways.
The objective of this presentation is to discuss and illustrate the merits of supercritical functionalization and impregnation of porous matrices using supercritical fluids with monomers and polymers. Since its inception by Sunol group, a variant of this novel supercritical impregnation process is commercialized in Europe. Novel grafting pathways utilizing GMA, PBAT minimize costly polymer use without bulking parent wood while imparting unique properties. The pilot plant, and characterization of resulting wood-polymer composite are discussed along with technoeconomic analysis which includes life cycle analysis.
