The expensive, energy-intensive process of turning wood into paper costs the pulp and paper industries more than $6 billion a year. Much of that expense involves separating wood's cellulose from ...

Although the components of wood – cellulose and lignin – are exceedingly cheap and plentiful, combining these into a wood-like structure is not straightforward, despite many attempts to make these ...

UPTON, NY-Lignin is a natural component of plant cell walls, the scaffolding that surrounds each cell and plays a pivotal role in plants' ability to grow against gravity and reach heights ranging from ...

Bob Kelly (l) and Jack Wang look over poplar trees in a greenhouse on NC State's Centennial Campus. Credit: Dee Shore, NC State University. Bob Kelly (l) and Jack Wang look over poplar trees in a ...

To the public, plastics are as unpredictable a wonder as the lighted fagade of the jukebox, itself made of plastics. This reputation is not wholly the product of press-agentry. Familiar as the ...

A new book details how lignin once protected algae from UV radiation, then later in evolutionary time became a structural support for trees. The following is an excerpt from When the Earth Was Green: ...

Lignin quantity and reactivity [which is associated with its syringyl/guaiacyl (S/G) constituent ratio] are two major barriers to wood-pulp production. To verify our contention that these traits are ...