BREAKING: Yale Professor’s “Superwood” Promises Revolution in Construction – Material Boasts Strength Rivaling Steel
Frederick, Maryland – A new engineered wood product, dubbed “Superwood,” is poised to disrupt the construction industry, offering a lighter, stronger, and more sustainable choice to conventional building materials like steel. Developed by Yale Professor Hongwei Hu, who began the research a decade ago while at the university of Maryland, Superwood achieves its remarkable properties through a novel chemical and compression process.
The breakthrough, frist realized in 2017, involves boiling wood in a chemical solution and then hot pressing it to alter its cellular structure, creating a considerably denser material. According to InventWood CEO Alex Lau, “From a chemical and practical standpoint, it’s wood,” but with dramatically enhanced characteristics.
Testing reveals Superwood possesses a higher strength-to-weight ratio than most structural metals and alloys, is up to 20 times stronger than regular wood, and 10 times more resistant to dents. The process eliminates the wood’s natural pore structure, making it resistant to mold and insects, and it has achieved top ratings in standard fire resistance tests.
InventWood, the company commercializing the technology, currently manufactures Superwood at its facility in Frederick, Maryland. Initial applications will focus on exterior uses like decking and siding, with plans to expand into interior components – wall panels, flooring, and furniture – in the coming year. Lau notes the potential to replace metal components in furniture prone to breakage.
While currently more expensive to produce than conventional wood and possessing a larger manufacturing carbon footprint,InventWood claims Superwood’s carbon emissions are 90% lower than steel production,with a goal of achieving cost competitiveness. Hu has secured over 140 patents related to the process, and Lau envisions a future where entire buildings are constructed from the innovative material, potentially reducing structural weight by up to four times and increasing earthquake resistance. the process has been successfully tested on 19 different wood species and bamboo.
