Karin Fackler1,2*, Cornelia Gradinger1,2, Marieke Schmutzer1,2, Crtomir Tavzes3, Ingo Burgert4, Manfred Schwanninger5, Barbara Hinterstoisser4, Takashi Watanabe6 and Kurt Messner2 Competence Centre for Wood Composites and Wood Chemistry (Wood K plus), St. Peter Straße 25, A-4021 Linz, Austria Institute of Chemical Engineering, Vienna University of Technology, Getreidemarkt 9/166, A-1060 Vienna,...

Foragers of the Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki, were allowed to tunnel in two dimensional, sand filled arenas containing Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii [Mirb.] Franco) wafers pressure treated with disodium octaborate tetrahydrate (DOT) to an average retention of 1.77 % BAE on one side of each arena, and untreated wafers of Douglas-fir on the other side. Arenas...

The photo-stabilizing effect of post-extraction was evaluated for thermally modified wood. Extracted and non-extracted thermally modified Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) samples were exposed in a xenon weather-ometer for 1008 h, and the surface color and chemical changes were characterized using a chroma meter, attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), an...

Eleven gram-negative aerobic bacteria (Pseudomonadaceae and Neisseriaceae) out of 122 soil isolates were selected for their ability to assimilate poplar dioxane lignin without a cosubstrate. Dioxane lignin and milled wood lignin degradation rates ranged between 20 and 40% of initial content after 7 days in mineral medium, as determined by a loss of absorbance at 280 nm; 10 strains could degrade...

Different rates of wood decay and ligninolytic activity were found in wood decayed by various white-rot fimgi. Chemical and ultrastructural analyses showed wood decayed by Coriolus versicolor consisted of a nonselective attack on all cell wall components. Lignin degradation was restricted to the cell wall adjacent to hyphae or around the circumference of cell lumina. Decay by Phellinus pini, Ph...

In this work, ultra-small europium-doped HfO2 nanoparticles were infiltrated into native wood and used as trackers for studying penetrability and diffusion pathways in the hierarchical wood structure. The high electron density, laser induced luminescence, and crystallinity of these particles allowed for a complementary detection of the particles in the cellular tissue. Confocal Raman microscopy...

BACKGROUND Biofuel production from lignocellulosic material is hampered by biomass recalcitrance towards enzymatic hydrolysis due to the compact architecture of the plant cell wall and the presence of lignin. The purpose of this work is to study the ability of an industrially available laccase-mediator system to modify and remove lignin during pretreatment of wood (Eucalyptus globulus) feedstoc...

this study is devoted to the morphological, chemical and physical characterization of raw material of the fruit of luffa cylindrica. by microscopic analysis, it can be observed that the fruit is composed of an assembly of dependent cords, where four parts are differentiated: external, internal wall, core and bond. each cord consists of hollow and flexible cylindrical fibers.the external part is...

While there may be many reasons why very interesting science ideas never reach commercial practice, one of the more prevalent is that the reaction or process, which is scientifically possible, cannot be made efficient enough to achieve economic viability. One pathway to economic viability for many business sectors is the multi-product portfolio. Research, development, and deployment of viable b...