Very little R&D has been done in this area which will be the future for all mass timber designers and manufacturers. The campus at the Franklin Eco-Industrial Park in Youngsville, North Carolina, just North of Raleigh, fronts on US Highway 1, and has a back entrance on US Highway 1A. It will have a double sided Guarded Hotbox, a high pressure roller seed-crystal press, and solar-heated pressure injection chambers. A CLT manufacturer is sought that will offer press time for experimental lay ups, and additive CLT panels. The location is adjacent to a Duke Energy substation with high voltage for a radio-frequency press. The site lease will be up to 10 years without charge, and both NC employment and solar-storage tax credits may be available. Duke Energy will buy back electricity from rooftop PV panels. There is space available for industry, university, and governmental research efforts as well.
Mass timber, once only built in Europe, has finally become accepted in America and Canada - even incorporated into the new building codes. Mass Timber buildings up to 18 stories have already been approved and constructed - based on their superior, yet unintuitive, fire resistance. MT is stronger than steel, weighs less than concrete, and is 100% renewable. It is Carbon Negative, meaning it sequesters tons of absorbed carbon for at least a millennium. The patented Enertia® process (US No. 6,933,016) injects even more carbon, and seed crystals, into the wood to enhance thermal capacity. The technology was honored in 2007 as one of America's first CCU (Carbon Capture & Utilization) patents and the resulting buildings named a Modern Marvel. Mass Timber also eliminates the debris-pollution problem of stick-framed homes destroyed by hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods.
Enertia® Building Systems Inc. is the ultimate green-tech, carbon-negative company- each house package out-the-door sequesters 25-50 tons of carbon, and prevents the release of 4 million tons of CO2 in its lifetime. Built from a pre-cut numbered kit, in a time of skilled labor shortage, the Enertia® home is capable of decarbonizing America in it's largest dollar market: rebuilding the single family infrastructure, most of which will need to be replaced in the next fifty years, sooner on the coast. Enertia® is the only proven, in-production solution that meets the requirements of 100% renewable, fuel and pollution free, traditional-looking, wind, fire, and earthquake resistant, and economical to build. The company plans to license its technology in North America, and Europe. Building an Enertia® home is the most a single family can do to impact, and protect themselves from, climate change, and extend that massive environmental and financial benefit to their next 40+ generations.
