Sep 1, 2016 | By Alec
It seems like 3D printing has taken root at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Just last month, the university’s archeological faculty announced its intentions to 3D print educational models of 3,000-year-old artefacts. Now, its biological sciences department is planning to use 3D printing to fight deforestation, with associate professor David Lueng having just been awarded a government grant to explore the development of synthetic wood through the 3D bioprinting of live plant cells. The research project aims to provide the wood industry with a sustainable alternative.
Given the global problem of deforestation, creating viable 3D printed wood would be a huge achievement. Nearly half of all original forests have already been cut down, and the global trend is not slowing down. According to some estimates, up to 13 million hectares of forest is lost every year–the equivalent of 36 football fields per minute. Deforestation is also known as a very important contributor to global carbon emissions, so all wood alternatives are very welcome.
Professor Leung might have a solution: 3D bioprinting artificial wood that can be harvested to provide a customizable alternative to the real thing. The New Zealand government believes that the plant physiology expert could be onto something, and has provided him with a NZ$255,000 grant over a three year period. If successful, he could provide the New Zealand manufacturing sector with a new, sustainable biomaterial.
A lot more is happening over in New Zealand, as Leung’s initiative was just one of 10 ambitious seed projects that received grants from the NZ$826,000 fund of the Science for Technological Innovation (SfTI) National Science Challenge (2016). The ten selected projects were recently announced by Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce.
Professor Leung himself is also a biotechnology expert, and his project (entitled ‘Enabling sustainable economic development with advanced additive manufacturing of wood’) is seen as having a lot of economic potential. “Although challenging, there is potential to use live cells as an advanced manufacturing material in a yet-to-be invented, new industry,” Leung said. In this application, 3D printing would become an industrial, mass-production tool.
The viability of Leung's method has already been demonstrated during a test with live green algal cells, but the associate professor is confident that the project can go further: “It is possible that other types of plant cells, such as the wood-forming cells of eucalyptus trees, could be used as bio-printing materials," Leung explained. "Hence, it is a potential, socially acceptable opportunity for sustainable economic development derived from native forests."
In particular, Leung is currently looking at live eucalyptus tree cells: “They will be physiologically primed in a 3D structure in the biotech lab at the University of Canterbury, without any genetic modification, to be capable of responding to the appropriate triggers for transformation into a principal wood cell called a tracheid,” he said. “The changes in the cells will be studied in relation to the characteristic morphological features and chemical properties of tracheids using various microscopic, histochemical staining and fluorescence techniques.”
If successful, this study could make a huge contribution to the fight against deforestation while simultaneously promoting and pushing other 3D bioprinting initiatives and even enabling the widespread implementation of 3D bioprinting on a larger scale. It’s clear that we’ll have to keep an eye on the University of Canterbury.
Posted in 3D Printing Materials
Maybe you also like:
- Adam Beane Industries' Cx5 sculptable 3D printing filament launches on Kickstarter
- FilaOne Gray Carbon Nanotube 3D printer filament supports 1,000 times its own weight during amazing strength test
- Formfutura's new EasyCork filament makes warp-free cork 3D printing possible on any 3D printer
- Indmatec's industrial strength PEEK filament successfully used for vacuum applications
- ELIX Polymers launches R&D project for next-gen ABS 3D printer filament with improved mechanical properties
- Roboze tests PEEK's amazing thermal properties during 8 hour continuous heat test
- Evonik developing biodegradable 3D printing composites for bone fracture implants
- Impossible Objects introduces 3D printed PEEK carbon fiber composite parts
- ORNL researchers 3D print an entire table with bamboo PLA pellets and giant BAAM 3D Printer
- Evonik partners with HP to develop powder 3D printing materials for HP Open Platform
- CARBIOS develops one-step PLA production process for 3D printing from microorganisms
- Breathe-3DP introduces 'Phoenix' industrial nylon 3D printing material, available in six colors
3Ders.org provides the latest news about 3D printing technology and 3D printers. We are now seven years old and have around 1.5 million unique visitors per month.
