Getting Roasted

Every spring for the past few years, MMR has been profiling folks in MI – on both the retail and supply sides of the equation – who are embracing and advancing “green” initiatives and developing technologies. It’s a feel-good, “fluff” type of story, in some respects, sure, but also shines a light on a truly important issue. Whatever your own personal politics, you can’t consider it a “bad” thing when companies and individuals find ways to not pollute the air or water, or contribute to destruction of the ozone layer, et cetera. Right?

So it was with some interest that I read a recent article by Rod Adams in Forbes outlining how renowned astrophysicist Frank Shu is now exploring ways in which one might produce ample energy for use by human society while also reducing and controlling atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations via “supertorrefaction.”

Any acoustic guitar retailer or builder likely is very familiar with what torrefaction is, but a brief primer for the uninitiated: Over the past decade or so, a growing number of suppliers have been taking advantage of a particular technique most commonly used in the treatment of oak wood flooring and charcoal manufacturing in order to achieve the dry, light, and stiff wood ideal for acoustic guitars. The process – torrefaction – involves “roasting” wood in the absence of oxygen and thereby removing volatiles and water, resulting in acoustic guitar tops that approximate the molecular composition (and therefore tone) of guitars that have been aged for decades. Vintage acoustic tone – right out of the box! Amazing, right? The process has been in use even longer by certain electric guitar builders in order to achieve necks that are more solid, lighter, and less impacted by changes in humidity and temperature.

Anyway… as the Forbes article explains, Shu’s suppertorrefaction involves submerging, “wood chips or other forms of shredded biomass into a bath of molten salts – NaOAc/KOAc for example – that is held at an average temperature of 4500 C… Shu’s team has been experimenting and refining their process equipment using Leucaena as a raw material source. Leucaena is a woody, nitrogen-fixing bush that is native to Mexico, but is an invasive species that has overrun areas of southeast Asia in a manner similar to the way that kudzu has smothered parts of the U.S. Southeast.”

So, in essence: by employing a (highly) modified form of a process already in place and being used by, among others, acoustic and electric guitar suppliers, we might be able – in the not too distant future – to harvest “nuisance plants,” wood, hay, or even straight-up garbage and create virtually unlimited energy for human use while not only not adding to carbon emissions, but actually helping to reduce them. Pretty wild.

And, no, none of this is necessarily a direct byproduct of any efforts on the parts of individuals in the MI industry. But luthiers and guitar suppliers had the notion to “repurpose” the existing process of torrefaction and the same innovative and groundbreaking mindset is clearly at work amongst Shu and his team.

Original ideas beget additional innovation. No word yet (that I’ve been able to find) as to whether or not Frank Shu is a closet six-string fanatic in his spare time, but regardless… Cool stuff!