Paperback reprint of the 1984 hardback. Wood is an ancient raw material, but in many respects it is also very modern. As the world supply of raw materials continues to dwindle, interest in renewable natural resources has increased remarkably, including the utilization of wood and its chemical components. This book aims to give a detailed state-of-the-art survey of the chemistry and ultrastructure of wood, covering such topics as the fundamentals of wood and bark, special reactions under various environmental conditions as well as the principles of pulping, cellulose derivation, and the conversion of wood into chemicals and energy.
The text is accompanied by numerous graphs and light and electron micrographs, many of them published for the first time. In addition to about 2,800 references there is an index compiling all species treated.