Friday 27 May 2016

Glass or wood?


Wood is useless for lots of things, for glass too. Lignin is the brownish substance in wood that makes it opaque. It’s made of many small repeating building blocks, Lignin, in turn, bonds tightly to the cellulose and other substances in a plant’s cell walls.

Removing lignin from wood is part of the process of making paper. In general, the more lignin you remove, the whiter the paper becomes.

This opens up many possible new uses for wood. Engineers and architects could use the new material to make large window-like panels that would let lots of natural light into buildings, for example. This might cut down the need for indoor lighting during the day.



Álvaro S. 3º Yellow

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