Canadian Nanotech

WIRED has an interesting article, "Nanotech Makes Wood Planes Fly Again", on an apparently successful Canuck process that creates nano-size particles of cellulose. Boeing thinks it's a great idea, and we have lots of cellulose.

Researchers in Canada have unveiled plans for a factory that will use nanotechnology to extract cellulose from wood and use it to form composite materials for airplanes. It's not so implausible when you consider that Boeing and Airbus are using significant amounts of carbon composite materials in their latest programs.

Brier Dudley, who writes a technology blog over at the Seattle Times, says the factory has been designed by FP Innovations, a nonprofit research organization supporting Canada's forestry industry. Company President Jim Dangerfield says the process allows the extraction of cellulose particles just 20 nanometers long and 20 nanometers wide, and the factory will be able to produce as much as a ton of them each day. Combined with other materials, the fibers are tough enough to form a new generation of composite materials.