Advances in Biomimicry and Biofabrication   

As a young faculty member at UL-Lafayette, I began teaching senior-level courses each semester on social, ethical and environmental issues that confront private-sector organizations. This wasn’t long after the passage of major national legislation such as the EPA, The Clean Air Act, and The Clean Water Act. There were certainly those then who opposed governmental initiatives to confront environmental threats. Among the critics, were the so-called “techno-optimists.” They claimed that, despite environmental threats, there was little reason for much government concern or action. Future technology developments would overcome such environmental hazards and climate change possibilities.

Decades of research and technological developments have witnessed breakthroughs that have led to the reduction of some environmental consequences, but today’s specter of climate change and biodiversity loss appears much gloomier than four or five decades ago. Even promising technological advances, such as hydrogen fuel cells or other alternative energy sources, must eventually pass tests of economic viability or scalability amid shifting trends in political support.

Among more optimistic areas of recent technological development are several that are significant now, and will become even more so, for the timber and forest products industry. Biomimicry approaches seek to mimic plant and animal strategies found in nature. Biofabrication designs and production of materials, structures, and systems apply knowledge of particular biological entities and processes.

For example, the self-repairing mechanisms of plants and animals continue to be studied by scientists in diverse fields. Polymers are being developed for use in materials that can heal cracks and scratches that these materials later absorb – through activation of embedded enzymes and chemicals. Certain self-healing polymers, as components within wood products, can also improve their fire resistance. Another innovation, superhydrophobic surfaces, can mimic the lotus leaf's extraordinary water-repellent ability. Researchers are developing superhydrophobic coatings for better waterproofing fabrics, solar panels, and wood-related surfaces.

Multiple authors, all faculty at the University of Colorado, shared a further biofabrication breakthrough in their article in the March 2023 on-line journal Nature Energy. Air within typical double-pane windows can be replaced by a transparent gel made from wood that drastically improves their insulating and energy-saving capabilities. They claim that this insulating aerogel film could be made inexpensively on a large scale, is more transparent than glass, and could be used in retrofitting existing windows.  

Universities and third-sector organizations have been actively engaged in biomimicry education and research. The Biomimicry Institute was founded in 2006 to help K-12, university, and other educators prepare the next generation of change makers with the tools to integrate biomimicry into their careers. The Biomimicry Center at Arizona State University working jointly with Biomimicry 3.8, a bio-inspired global consulting and training firm , share some similar goals as the Biomimicry Institute.

American universities doing higher-profile biomimicry and biofabrication research that seems relevant for the timber and forest products industry include: 1) the University of Maine (cellulose nanofibers and engineered wood products); 2) MIT (cellulose-based structures and bioprinting for wood products); 3) Cal-Berkeley (fire-retardant wood treatments and bio-inspired adhesives); 4) University of Washington (wood composites and cross-laminated timber); and 5) Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (bio-based coatings or treatments for timber products)

Universities closer to home also devote significant educational and research resources toward biofabrication potentials. LSU has a School of Renewable Natural Resources and a Forest Products Development Center. While LSU has more resources for biomimicry and biofabrication research, other state institutions also conduct these investigations. Tulane has graduate programs in biomolecular engineering. Among UL-Lafayette’s programs in its Department of Chemical Engineering is a bioengineering concentration.

Corporate business leaders typically use strategic planning approaches to plot their organizations’ futures. They seek to understand their existing internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external threats and opportunities in order to determine corporate strategies. So, line and staff managers in forest products corporations must stay abreast of important biomimicry and biofabrication advances.

Many larger companies do more than simply monitor scientific and technological developments. Some have sophisticated R&D units with clinical and field laboratories that are directly involved in the discovery process. Top managers recognize, however, many of their own company’s R&D limitations. Internal R&D efforts can be costly in terms of technological staffing, facilities, and equipment – plus these corporations can’t be actively involved in many possibly relevant research initiatives underway globally. So, they occasionally join consortia or form partnerships with other organizations that are conducting related scientific research.

When larger companies partner with research institutions and universities doing applied research, company employees can sometimes work together on R&D projects with faculty and staff at these institutions. Research universities get corporate contributions of dollars and other key resources, while the companies involved get earlier or more direct access to scientific and technological advancements. The companies might also be able to hire a few of these graduating university students having specialized knowledge.

Biomimicry and biofabrication applications are much broader than the few examples mentioned earlier that might be relevant for certain forest products companies. Books such as Biomimicry and Business (Margo Farnsworth, 2020) provide much more information on business applications.

Health research initiatives include using 3D bioprinters to create complex tissue structures with living cells and biocompatible materials for human organ repair and transplantation. The integration of living cells with synthetic materials is also creating bio-hybrid sensory equipment that can facilitate more accurate and quicker responses to wildlife and climate threats. You don’t have to be a full-fledged “techno-optimist” to welcome advances when and where these occur.

Spirit Trees: The Black Walnut?

A long time ago a girlfriend of mine lived in Arizona and seriously collected pieces of Navaho and Hopi jewelry. She once gave me a Hopi inlaid silver ornament shaped as a snake and claimed that the snake was my spirit animal. Perhaps sensing my confusion or doubt, she explained that to the Hopi, snakes symbolized an umbilical cord that linked all humans to Mother Earth. The snake also signified, according to her, my personal characteristics of persistence, tenacity, or stubbornness.

Any Native American blood in my family was four or five generations back and from the Creek nation in Georgia, rather than from the Southwestern tribes. I also don’t really identify spiritually or otherwise with particular animals. If I feel strongly linked or have an intuitive connection with anything in the natural world, it’s with a unique tree found here in Louisiana and elsewhere.

Growing up with many country cousins, we had several family rituals involving trees in my grandparents’ yard or in its surrounding woods. Thanksgiving visits usually included an hour or so of our gathering pecans from an ancient tree in the pasture area. During the Easter holiday, my father and an uncle or two would occasionally lead a group of youngsters in a search of the nearby woods for sassafras trees. We would dig around the base of one of those trees for roots to cut and later use for making sassafras tea. The pecan, sassafras, hickory, or oak trees in that area, though, never evoked my greater sense of wonder and regard.      

I remember my father’s fascination with a large black walnut tree that grew on the Winn Parish rural property where his maternal grandfather had settled and built a log cabin in the 1870s. My father inherited the property and restored the large cabin on it in the 1960s and ‘70s. The black walnut tree stood at the periphery of the clearing around that heart-of-pine, dog-trot cabin. This tree’s shape resembled something like a live oak tree with a couple of huge, twisting lower branches running at least 30 feet away from the trunk and only ten feet or less above the ground. My father had stressed how valuable black walnut trees were and that sometimes people even trespassed, felled, and stole these trees.   

Someone in our family had long ago hung a cable swing from the largest of this black walnut tree’s lower branches. By about 1988, the old tree began to lose some higher branches and to show its age. My father worried that a child might try to use the swing and that the branch supporting the swing might fall. So, he was determined one October day to remove that large branch. Trying to use a ladder, a chain saw, and a come-along by himself, he had an accident, fell off the ladder, and suffered a serious head concussion.

More than a decade after his death in 1995, I decided to contact a heritage tree logger from south Louisiana to spend a few days harvesting that black walnut tree while it still had some value. The logger claimed from tree ring inspection that it was well over 100 years old. From the base and roots of the tree, he cut blanks that I contracted with two wood turners to create a large bowl and smaller jewelry boxes to give to family members. Lumber from the tree quickly was snapped up by several furniture-making hobbyists.   

I thought the late fall days of my gathering, separating nuts from their enveloping drupes, and then shelling the nuts were over – not that I really would miss the hours demanded for these tasks. Removing the nuts from their drupes was messy work. The oily chemical combination of juglone and tannin in the drupes could filter through light gloves and leave black stains on my hands that took weeks to disappear. I didn’t simply discard the black slush left from the broken drupes though. Anything that produced such a formidable stain, when mixed with a little water, seemed worthy of addition to store-bought wood stain for later use on fences and decks.

Effectively shelling different kinds of nuts is a skill that probably fewer folks master today compared to decades ago. A lot of people now conveniently purchase already shelled nuts. Black walnuts seem one of the more difficult and time-consuming nuts to shell. Often you end up digging for small pieces from the convoluted chambers of the nut. This effort might be worth it, though, since black walnuts are reportedly as nutritious as any type of nut. They provide protein, fiber, heart-healthy monounsaturated fat, omega-3 fatty acids, potassium, phosphorus, and Vitamin B5 and B6. They are also loaded with polyphenols that have antioxidant properties.

A year or two after having the old black walnut tree harvested, I noticed a few green drupes about 60 feet from where the huge tree had stood. Closer inspection of the area proved the existence of a young tree that was just beginning to bear fruit. Each fall since, I’ve been gifted with the presence of at least a small crop of black walnuts. I could ignore those drupes on the ground and leave them to rot or for possible squirrel consumption, but some indefinable force just won’t let me do that. I feel strangely compelled to put in the hours of work and frustrations processing those tough nuts. 

P.S. – Cashews, pistachios, and several other common “nuts” are not considered nuts by purists. Botanically, a nut is a dry fruit that consists of a hard shell covering a single seed, such as found in acorns, chestnuts, and hazelnuts. Drupes are fruits, like peaches and cherries, which are fleshy on the outside and contain a shell covering a seed on the inside. We consume the fleshy exterior of drupes like peaches, while we consume the seeds of drupes like cashews.  

Enhanced Geothermal and Hydrogen Energy Production  

To understand better the environmental challenges facing Louisiana requires some knowledge of existing and proposed energy sources. Media coverage recently has explored particular cleaner energy sources that could help meet national and global goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  

Research and development continue to focus on solar, wind, hydro, and bioenergy or waste options. Added to the list of emerging cleaner energy sources have been enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) and forms of hydrogen fuel production. These two energy alternatives will have significant economic and environmental impacts for the future of Louisiana, and I’ll try to summarize these potentials for those who might not be that aware of these alternatives.     

Traditional geothermal energy sources lie at or close to the earth’s surface. EGS techniques involve the injection of fluids deep underground, causing pre-existing fractures there to expand and geothermal reservoirs to be created. EGS has attracted significant attention from both the scientific community and major corporate players. Despite geothermal energy now representing less than 1% of U.S. electricity production, the Biden Administration and key industry leaders such as Chevron are making substantial investments in EGS and envisioning it as a linchpin of our energy future. The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Geothermal Technologies Program is supported by the DOE’s national laboratories and conducts developmental projects throughout the country.   

The further development of EGS is an opportunity for the often-criticized oil and gas industry to contribute its drilling technology and expertise. With the knowledge and skills of many past and current industry employees, the industry is well positioned to pursue cleaner geothermal resources. EGS employs many of the same drilling technologies as oil and gas, but geothermal wells are completed differently. 

The possibility for profitable extraction of rare minerals from geothermal wells offers an additional economic impact for this technology. EGS can facilitate more integration with other energy technologies, such as carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) as well as hydrogen fuel production. 

There remain obstacles for ERG potentials, including its production costs. Further technology advancements will be needed to increase EGS efficiency. Concerns have also been raised about the seismic risks of earthquakes associated with these techniques, like those occasionally experienced with hydraulic fracking for oil and gas. 

The development of hydrogen fuel production offers some similar and some different potentials as EGS. Various initiatives worldwide are showcasing hydrogen's potential and renewing interest in what can be a low- or zero-emission fuel. Hydrogen reserves have been found hundreds of feet below the Earth's surface in specific locations in the USA, France, Eastern Europe, Russia, Australia, Oman, and Mali. These "white” or natural hydrogen reserves can be contrasted to other forms of hydrogen production.  

Hydrogen fuel can be produced in various ways, and colors have been associated with specific hydrogen production approaches. More common types of hydrogen production are gray, blue, and green. Green hydrogen does not result in greenhouse gas emissions and uses renewable energy sources such as wind or solar power. This process uses an electrolyzer to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Gray hydrogen is produced from natural gas through a process called steam methane reforming, but this emits a significant amount of carbon dioxide. Blue hydrogen is also produced from natural gas, but it uses carbon dioxide capture and storage techniques to try to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.  

The Biden-Harris Administration announced in 2023 a substantial investment of $7 billion to establish seven regional clean hydrogen hubs across the United States. One of these is the Gulf States Hub, based in Houston. The seven hubs are supposed to accelerate the adoption of low-cost, cleaner hydrogen, bolster domestic manufacturing, and create a sustainable and thriving economy while ensuring a healthier environment. 

Air Products is building a $4.5 billion blue hydrogen plant in Ascension Parish which will produce low-carbon hydrogen for the Gulf Coast region and beyond. The facility is expected to capture and sequester 95% of its carbon dioxide emissions.  

Plans are also underway for green hydrogen production in Louisiana. Called H2theFuture, a coalition of many companies has already secured a $50 million grant from the federal government towards research and development, workforce training, and business development to accelerate hydrogen projects in the state.   

Challenges exist for hydrogen fuel usage related to its distribution and storage. H2MOF, a pioneering California startup, is making strides in the field of hydrogen storage with the development of new types of tanks constructed from cutting-edge nanomaterials. With a focus on affordability and safety, the company aims to provide an efficient storage solution for heavy-duty vehicle makers looking to incorporate zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell technology. 

Active research and commercial testing of various cleaner energy sources, including EGS and hydrogen potentials, are vitally important. Over time, we must find mixes of different energy options that better satisfy changing environmental, energy, and economic demands.  

For those of you who might like to learn more about cleaner energy sources, as well as technological advances in coping with climate change and environmental degradation, there are many useful online media resources. Perhaps the one that I’ve followed the most lately has been The Cool Down (https://www.thecooldown.com/

 

             

          Doing Something about Forever Chemicals   

Our planet’s ecosystems have been damaged by the impacts of a century of plastics manufacturing and usage.

Leo Baekeland in 1907 invented Bakelite, the first fully synthetic plastic containing no molecules found in nature. Not long after World War I, plastics such as polystyrene and polyamide could be found in most American households. The further development of plastic products, due to their versatility, convenience, and affordability, has led to massive public consumption.     

Those of you, like me, interested in conservation and environmental sustainability issues must have noticed alarming news articles in the past year concerning two specific threats: microplastics and “forever” chemicals. I’ll focus a little attention on what seems to be the more disturbing of these two forms of plastics pollution.  

Forever chemicals are Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) – a set of synthetic chemicals widely used since the 1950s in many consumer products and industrial processes. They are called forever chemicals due to their resistance to degradation and their persistent contamination of our water, soil, and air. PFAS are found in items such as food packaging, cosmetics, cookware, waterproof clothing, carpets, mattresses, electronics, and fire-fighting foams. Human exposure to PFAS has been linked to cancer. Additional health issues associated with PFAS exposure have been reported to be lower immunity levels, liver damage, unhealthy blood lipid levels, and pregnancy complications.   

Corporations such as 3M and Dupont have developed thousands of different PFAS. These companies make and then sell PFAS to other companies that use them in a diverse array of products. Critics have charged that the plastics industry has known for decades that PFAS have dangerous health consequences, but these companies have been negligent or very slow in response. Heightened awareness of PFAS consequences in the last decade or so has led to increased regulatory attention, many lawsuits, and chemical industry efforts to reduce or substitute for their usage.  

3M agreed to a $10.3 billion settlement in June 2023 with American cities and towns over claims that 3M had contaminated their drinking water. The company will pay out the money over 13 years for tests and cleanup of PFAS in public water supplies. Overall, PFAS have been found in more than one in four public drinking water systems in 2023 and in concentrations at or above the Environmental Protection Agency’s minimum reporting levels, according to a USA Today article in November. The newly published EPA data indicated hundreds of water systems that have detected PFAS provide drinking water to about 46 million Americans. 

USA government measures introduced in 2023 have sought to lessen the presence and impact of these substances in our ecosystems, while several European countries have declared their intention to outright ban the manufacture of PFAS. Some institutional and corporate investors are also pressuring chemical companies to end production of PFAS due to the growing and profound threat to these manufacturers’ bottom lines.  

Elsie M. Sunderland, Professor of Environmental Chemistry and Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University, has been studying PFAS for about a decade and was interviewed on the VOX media site in 2022. She claimed that almost everybody has levels of different PFAS in their drinking water sources, whether tap or bottled water. She further estimates that 98 percent to 99 percent of people already have levels of PFAS in their bodies. 

Dr. Sutherland described the difficult challenges of doing something about these “everywhere” chemicals. Since there are thousands of different PFAS, proving one or some of these are very harmful hasn’t stopped the production and sales of other PFAS. It can take a decade or so of research and testing to determine if these other PFAS are just as bad. If so, the industry might still introduce yet another type of PFAS with uncertain prospects.   

Autumn Spanne, journalist and an editor for the Environmental Heath News, recommends the following personal approaches to lower the risk of harm from PFAS:   

* Read the labeling carefully for water- and stain-repellent items such as clothing, carpeting, curtains, furniture upholstery, bedding, tablecloths, napkins, personal care products, and cosmetics. Avoid those with “perfluor-,” “polyfluor-,” or “PTFE” on the label. 

* Use stainless steel, cast iron, glass, or ceramic cookware instead of non-stick or Teflon pots and pans.  

* Find out if your water source has been tested for PFAS. If it contains PFAS, or if it hasn’t been tested, consider purchasing an effective water filter.  

Increasing legal and regulatory attention placed on both microplastics and PFAS is presenting opportunities for the timber and forest products industry to offer viable plastics substitutes. Scientists, engineers, and designers are eyeing ecologically friendlier alternatives such as converted wood wastes and liquid wood. Arboform or liquid wood is biodegradable and composed of three natural components: pulp-based lignin, cellulose fibers, and some additives. It can be molded and used like some plastic products.  

To avoid PFAS coatings on some paper products, several firms are developing uncoated, yet grease-resistant, items. They are using an alternate mechanical process of compressing the fibers in paper and paperboard products. Compostable materials other than paper are also being used to make oil- and grease-resistant food ware. Polylactic acid typically made from corn, as well as clay, bamboo, and palm leaf are examples of these compostable materials. 

We certainly owe it to ourselves to do a much better job than previously of integrating concerns for our natural environment into the development of consumer and industrial products.  

    Anti-Corruption Reforms in Governmental Programs  

Ever taken an introductory business management or public administration course? An early lesson in these courses is usually the key functions of managers and administrators. These are often explained as planning, organizing, controlling, staffing, and leading.

As a former management professor and consultant, I stressed the quality of controls established for organizational plans and programs. Without adequate controls to monitor and identify problems, organizations have much greater difficulty in achieving plans or developing better ones for the future. Many inefficiencies in both the public and private sectors can be traced to ineffectual organizational controls. We can see this particularly when funds appropriated for important government priorities, such as environmental cleanup and climate change responses, are squandered.

   

Control deficits can occasionally be found in the collective process of creating our federal, state, and local laws. Those directly involved in or significantly affected by proposed legislation can usually provide much more informed input in this process. These key stakeholders can also interject their self-interests and perceptual biases though. Deals are eventually struck, with parties to these deals often trying to squeeze in preferred amendments. These negotiated agreements can result in legislation, and later administrative programs, having gaps, overlaps, and inconsistencies, adding to implementation and control difficulties.

Stakeholders with “deeper pockets” who are impacted by legislation and administrative policies often obtain talented resources to help them “get around” some provisions in the agreements. There are also those who flout laws and policies with impunity, especially if there are poor enforcement activities and low punishment risks.

   

Critics can sometimes fault an overall law or policy without fully recognizing that its major weakness is its crude monitoring or enforcement. The devil can be in the details of creating and maintaining appropriate control measures, and this important responsibility is often left in the hands of lower-level staff members. We do have some program administrators who are attuned to their control responsibilities. However, we often don’t have enough of these truly dedicated and talented individuals to make policy implementation very effective.

One glaring example of federal policy implementation and control weaknesses was revealed to the public by reporting from NBC News last year. The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was a business loan program established during the Trump administration through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). In what many have called the largest fraud in U.S. history, the U.S. Department of Justice has charged more than 500 people with illegally claiming PPP loans. Experts have claimed that there was theft of about ten percent of the $800 billion distributed in the relief plan. That amount was said to be in addition to the $90 billion to $400 billion estimated as stolen from the $900 billion COVID unemployment relief program.  

Our own state has long had an unenviable reputation for fraud and corruption associated with governmental programs.  One example of statistics backing up these perceptions is displayed.

The Biden administration has prioritized increased anti-corruption efforts within federal programs, stating that such corruption erodes public trust, deepens economic and political inequality, and degrades the business environment. The website fact sheet for their reforms describes how underinvestment in government technology, the crush of demand during the pandemic, and ill-considered decisions to take down basic fraud controls led to historic amounts of outright fraud. The effectiveness of these recently proposed approaches will be tested over time. Given the massive amount of grants, loans, and tax credits associated with recent infrastructure and climate programs, wide ranging anti-corruption reforms seem warranted.  

   

Part of the focus on anti-corruption in governmental programs must be better recognition of the importance of lower-level personnel who often directly implement and monitor these programs. We learned the critical roles played by “essential workers” on the frontline during the pandemic, and afterward during global supply chain shortages. These workers are best situated to detect potential implementation problems – if we value and seek their input.    

For every czar or top program administrator, we need many conscientious support personnel to assure high levels of policy implementation. The quality of recruitment, selection, training, and treatment of talented public-sector employees is key, especially given attractive job alternatives in the private sector. Even if we are smart enough to have these essential workers where needed, they seldom get the attention and respect that they deserve.

Public sector administrators can rely too much on heavy-handed bureaucratic controls and display limited awareness of market and social controls. The administrative challenge is much more than a simple choice of either more or fewer control measures. It’s the selection of a creative and appropriate set of controls that fit well with chosen plans and implementation realities. Since any control option has a mix of potential costs and benefits, specific controls must be justified. We need to reduce potential frauds without having enforcement officials spend excessive resources or obsessively monitor the lives of employees, consumers, and others.

Billions of dollars in governmental funds for infrastructure and environmental improvements in Louisiana have been provided or scheduled. Let’s hope that the administrators and employees involved will take their control responsibilities seriously.