Volume 22 Issue 1

Modern society faces an environmental crisis driven by non-degradable components, including synthetic plastics in daily products and industrial agriculture. Beyond simple plastic replacement, this editorial introduces “Ecosystems Long-cycle Materialogy”—a new paradigm that redefines human-made materials as integral elements of natural biogeochemical cycles. Within this framework, forests and oceans are envisioned as vast hubs for ultralong material circulation. For example, wood-mimetic microbeads for cosmetics are designed with the expectation that they will eventually enter natural biogeochemical cycles in a safe and controlled manner. Therefore, rather than becoming problematic waste, these deliberately designed bio-based materials participate in an extended carbon cycle. Once entering the ocean, they biodegrade and sequester carbon in the deep seabed, potentially on the order of 500 to 1,000 years. This philosophy shifts our objective from reducing environmental burden to complementing ecosystem cycles. By acknowledging that every material serves as the starting point for the next form of life, we can align manufacturing with the Earth’s long‑term resilience and survival.

Freshwater scarcity in arid regions is a serious issue currently, owing to the frequent variations in global climates, such as the Colorado River ongoing drought in 2026. Delignified wood and regenerated cellulose-based porous film and fiber web materials for sustainable atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) and seawater desalination techniques have potential to alleviate the freshwater scarcity crisis, while the continuous and large-scale manufacturing of these advanced cellulosic materials has some technical limitations. This editorial focuses on cellulose wet-screw extrusion-casting, blowing, and spinning techniques, which integrate with coagulation baths, to continuously large-scale manufacture regenerated cellulose-based porous films and fiber webs or nonwovens for the AWH and seawater desalination to regenerate freshwater. As an advanced large-scale manufacturing technique, melting extrusion 3D printed artificial wood- or natural fiber-based complexly structured bio-composite materials mimicking the artificial forests can further enhance AWH and seawater desalination techniques. These advanced cellulosic materials offer potential solutions to alleviate the scarcity of freshwater in arid regions and contribute to the drip irrigation-based sustainable agriculture.

Expanded polystyrene (EPS) and polyethylene (PE) foams remain the dominant cushioning materials in protective packaging because of their low density, resilience, and impact-attenuation performance, but their environmental persistence and poor post-consumer recovery are driving increasingly strict packaging regulations. Cellulose-based alternatives — molded pulp, foam-formed and nanofibrillated cellulose (CNF) foams, and mycelium-bound composites — have each achieved partial success, yet none has simultaneously matched EPS/PE-level cushioning performance, cost, and manufacturing scale. This editorial argues that closing this gap depends less on specialty furnish chemistry — surfactants, cross-linkers, or biological cultivation steps — than on process-engineering advances that convert ordinary pulp furnish, using confined-mold vapor expansion and conventional natural binders, into a porous, EPS-like cellular structure, and calls for coordinated industrial investment in that direction.

Mushroom cultivation is already a highly controlled biological production process. Temperature, relative humidity, carbon dioxide concentration, ventilation, substrate conditions, watering, and cultivation time are carefully managed, yet most strategies still rely on predefined setpoints and empirical experience. In this editorial, we argue that digital twins could provide the next step: not another monitoring platform, but a continuously updated virtual representation of the crop-production system. Such a twin should combine environmental measurements, substrate information, crop development, historical production data, and predictive models to estimate the current crop state and evaluate alternative cultivation strategies. The objective would not simply be better environmental control, but adaptive optimization of yield, quality, resource consumption, and production time. Mushroom cultivation therefore offers an unusually suitable environment in which digital twins could evolve from an engineering concept into a practical tool for biological production.

Recent ongoing removal of roadside and public-space trees in Egypt has become a governance concern. In an arid, densely urbanizing country, mature trees provide shade, evapotranspirative cooling, particulate capture, carbon storage, habitat, and cultural value. Evidence from Cairo and other Egyptian cities shows declining and unevenly distributed green space, and rising heat stress, which contrast with substantial cooling benefits from parks and connected green-blue infrastructure. This editorial argues that tree cutting should be treated as cumulative loss rather than isolated landscaping. It is proposed here that there be open inventories, as well as separate evaluations of the impact replacement rates that depend on what the trees do. There should be rules that make sure people can take part in the decision before any cutting happens.

Moment–rotation (M–θ) relationships obtained from subassembly tests are often transferred directly to semi-rigid models of glued laminated timber (glulam) structures, although the identified response may depend on the loading arrangement. This study quantified that influence for a slotted-in steel-plate glulam–steel hub joint using refined three-dimensional finite-element models in strong-axis (MN) and weak-axis (MY) bending. Zero-preload three-point (3P) and four-point (4P) configurations were compared on a common joint-level basis, three 4P loading positions were assessed, and compression analyses were used to evaluate preload-induced eccentricity. After reconstruction of interface moments and local rotations, the initial-stiffness difference between 3P and 4P was 8.4% for MN and 4.0% for MY. Four-point loading reduced the shear-to-moment index from 0.317 to 0.023 in MN and from 0.146 to 0.006 in MY. Moving the loading points from 400 to 450 mm changed fitted stiffness by less than 0.1% while increasing actuator demand. At 100 kN axial compression, hub eccentricity reached 1.08 mm in MN and 15.77 mm in MY. The results demonstrate that loading configuration and preload-induced geometry should be considered when identifying rotational response for subsequent full-scale testing and semi-rigid modeling.

Biomass-fired thermal oil heaters are green and efficient heating devices that use heated thermal oil as the heat transfer medium. This study investigated how thermal oil thermophysical properties and heating temperature affect asphalt heating. A physical model incorporating thermal convection and conduction was established, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations using hypothetical single-factor property combinations were conducted to analyze the effects of thermal oil density, specific heat capacity, and thermal conductivity. An independent experimental platform using a biomass thermal oil boiler and real thermal oils was constructed to examine the simulated property effects. Results show that the specific heat capacity and density of thermal oil dominate heat transfer during the early heating stage by altering the internal energy carried by the fluid. In contrast, the extremely low thermal conductivity of asphalt constitutes the primary bottleneck for system heat transfer, limiting the influence of thermal oil thermal conductivity on overall heating performance. Experimental trends support the simulated property effects. Within the tested property ranges, the influence ranking based on experimental temperature differences is: specific heat capacity > density > thermal conductivity. At 1000 s, the corresponding absolute temperature differences between the high- and low-parameter cases are 1.97, 0.91, and 0.2 °C. These findings provided theoretical support and design guidance for the matching of operating conditions and thermal oil selection in biomass-powered indirect heating systems.

Three-layer cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels were produced using Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) for the outer layers and poplar (Populus) for the middle layer. Circular, rectangular, and trapezoidal geometric corrugates were applied to the middle layer; the aim was to determine the air-dry density, moisture content, thermal conductivity (λ), and thermal transmittance (U) values of the resulting panels under three different climatic conditions. The moisture content of the geometric corrugated CLT panels was higher than that of the control group. In contrast, the air-dry density values were approximately 15% lower than those of the control group. The lowest value of the thermal conductivity coefficient was obtained for the circular- corrugated panel at an average of 0.099 W/m·K, while this value was measured at 0.108 W/m·K for the control group. Similarly, the thermal transmittance coefficient also showed the lowest value, 2.026 W/m²·K, in the circular- corrugated panel. Both the corrugate geometry and ambient temperature had statistically significant effects on the heat conduction and thermal transmittance coefficients. However, the combined effect of corrugate geometry and ambient temperature was not statistically significant. Circular grooving improved the thermal performance of CLT panels, which were judged to be suitable for structural applications requiring thermal insulation.

Many countries are seeking to reduce their dependence on non-renewable energy sources, particularly fossil fuels. This study evaluated the chemical, energetic, and thermal characteristics of wood from non-commercial hybrid progenies and clones of Corymbia torelliana × C. henryi, C. torelliana × C. maculata, C. torelliana × C. citriodora × C. maculata, and C. torelliana × C. citriodora, at 3 and 4 years of age, to assess their potential for energy production. The genotypes exhibited variation in wood density, chemical composition, and energetic properties. Higher heating values ranged from 19.0 to 19.6 MJ kg^-1, although differences among genotypes were not statistically significant. Energy density ranged from 9.15 to 11.8 GJ m^-3, with clone CTC2 exhibiting the highest value (11.8 GJ m^-3) and the highest basic wood density (616 kg m^-3). Clone CTM2 stood out for its high extractive, lignin, and fixed carbon contents, supporting its potential for charcoal production. Thermogravimetric analysis showed that clone CTC6 had the highest residual mass (31.0%), indicating greater thermal stability under the tested conditions. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy identified functional groups associated with the main wood constituents, while X-ray diffraction revealed the highest crystallinity index in clone CTCM (38.4%). Overall, clones CTC2 and CTM2 showed promising wood properties for metallurgical charcoal production, highlighting the potential of non-commercial Corymbia genetic materials for energy applications.

To address the lack of quantitative environmental footprint assessment in design translation of intangible cultural heritage products, this study takes Dunhuang Nine-Colored Deer themed wood-based cultural and creative products as objects and constructs a green assessment path based on Analytic Hierarchy Process-Life Cycle Assessment (AHP-LCA). A three-level AHP model established by 30 interdisciplinary experts identified and prioritized the core bionic elements (galloping deer morphology: 0.344; mineral white: 0.121; line drawing outline: 0.057). According to ISO 14040 (2006) and ISO 14044 (2006) standards, dual-dimensional life cycle assessment is adopted to compare the baseline scheme and optimized scheme. The results show that the optimized scheme achieved 4.3% full life cycle carbon emission reduction, 52.8% raw material emission reduction, and 65% material recovery rate. The study shows that the AHP-LCA model can effectively balance cultural aesthetic demands and low-carbon properties of wood-based materials and provides a systematic methodological reference for green and sustainable development of biomass-based products.