Wood Protection for Carbon Sequestration — a Review of Existing Approaches and Future Directions

Purpose of Review: Wood can be protected from biological deterioration thereby prolonging its longevity and contribution to carbon sequestration. Wood protection is only useful if it is inexpensive and can be done at scale, and with minimal adverse environmental impacts. It is difficult to meet all these criteria but some approaches come close. They are described in this paper with an emphasis on new research findings and directions to inform current research on carbon sequestration by wood. Recent Findings: Research on wood protection with the exception of nano-wood preservatives is gradually shifting away from the use of synthetic biocidal chemical treatments to the use of naturally durable wood or protectants and treatments that deny organisms access to wood (barriers) or restrict essential requirements for their growth. The latter approach is attracting attention, and welcome new entrants to the field of wood protection, because of its potential to enhance carbon sequestration at a meaningful scale. Summary: We expect increasing regulatory and cost pressure on traditional approaches to wood protection using synthetic biocides and an acceleration of the trend evident in the recent past of protecting wood by modifying its molecular structure to exclude water, or growing trees in plantations that produce naturally durable wood. The strengthening of this trend will create many opportunities to research the properties and applications of ‘new’ durable wood products. In addition, we predict a major reorientation of the field to develop, test and model novel approaches to wood protection for atmospheric carbon sequestration. We conclude that future work will likely include research on protection of: (1) novel cellulose or lignin composites used as replacements for plastic; (2) massive timber composites used in tall buildings and other large infrastructure; (3) huge quantities of low-quality wood used specifically for carbon containment.