Infodoc : Sciences, Techniques et Culture

In the framework of sustainable development, wood is increasingly emerging as an environmentally-friendly material and has gradually becomes better established in the French industrial landscape. A number of still low-profile inventions come out the laboratories and find commercial applications. The latter enjoy strong political support and are very popular with the general public, who sees them as environmentally-friendly alternatives to conventional synthetic products derived from the petrochemical industry, and to those that consume large amounts of energy to be produced. After a short introduction dealing with wood as a source of new materials and products, a few examples of innovations are given in this paper. Structural materials, followed by functional materials, will be consid[...]

In the framework of sustainable development, wood is increasingly emerging as an environmentally-friendly material and has gradually becomes better established in the French industrial landscape. A number of still low-profile inventions come out the laboratories and find commercial applications. The latter enjoy strong political support and are very popular with the general public, who sees them as environmentally-friendly alternatives to conventional synthetic products derived from the petrochemical industry, and to those that consume large amounts of energy to be produced. After a short introduction dealing with wood as a source of new materials and products, a few examples of innovations are given in this paper. Structural materials, followed by functional materials, will be considered in the light of recent works carried out in French laboratories.
S’inscrivant dans une démarche de développement durable, le bois s’impose de plus en plus comme un matériau à dimension environnementale et s’ancre dans le paysage français. Encore discrètes, de nombreuses innovations sortent peu à peu des laboratoires et trouvent des applications commerciales. Celles-ci bénéficient d’un soutien politique fort et sont plébiscitées par le grand public, qui y voit des alternatives plus respectueuses de l’environnement aux produits synthétiques dérivés de la pétrochimie, ou à ceux dont la production nécessite de lourdes dépenses énergétiques. Après une brève introduction portant sur le bois en tant que source de matériaux et de produits nouveaux, quelques exemples d’innovations seront donnés dans cet article. Les matériaux de structure, puis les matériaux de fonction, seront traités à la lumière de travaux récents réalisés dans des laboratoires français.