---
title: The Wood That Could—and Did—Receive a $20M Award
date: 2022-11-30T05:30:00-05:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/the-wood-that-could-and-did-receive-20m-award"
section: Articles
---
# The Wood That Could—and Did—Receive a $20M Award

*November 30, 2022* — by [Maryland Today Staff](/author/maryland-today-staff)


> DoE Grant Supports Researcher’s Efforts to Introduce Ultra-strong Wood for Construction

*Mettle Wood 1920x1080 — Many types of wood can be compressed to form MetalWood—a building material stronger and lighter than steel. The extreme compression process used causes wood to become much denser (below).*

A $20 million federal award will expand development of a University of Maryland-born wood product that’s stronger than steel.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s innovation arm, Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy ([ARPA-E](https://arpa-e.energy.gov/)), announced the funding for InventWood, a company founded by Liangbing Hu, Herbert Rabin Distinguished Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and director of the [Center for Materials Innovation](https://cmi.umd.edu).

The award will fund research into scaling up the use of the company’s MettleWood, which it describes as 60% stronger than construction-grade steel but 80% lighter, much less expensive and far more sustainable. The agency said the product would “contribute to the decarbonization of buildings and enable built structures to store significantly greater amounts of carbon.”

MettleWood product is made by removing lignin, a natural “glue” that holds the cells together, and extremely compressing the remaining wood to create a robust and rust-free structural material. Besides strength, another advantage of the product over conventional wood construction material is that many species can be used.


*two blocks of wood*




**Topics:** [Research](https://today.umd.edu/tags/research)


**Tags:** [Architecture](https://today.umd.edu/topic/architecture), [Materials Science and Engineering](https://today.umd.edu/topic/materials-science-and-engineering), [Research](https://today.umd.edu/topic/research)


**Units:** [A. James Clark School of Engineering](https://today.umd.edu/topic/james-clark-school-engineering), [School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation](https://today.umd.edu/topic/school-architecture-planning-and-preservation)