![]() Dr. Hongmei Gu | Hongmei GuStatistics, Life Cycle Analysis, and Economics ResearchUnit: FPL-4851 Research Forest Products Technologist One Gifford Pinchot Drive Madison, WI United States 53726 Phone: 608-231-9589 Fax: 608-231-9508 hongmei.gu@usda.gov |
- Research
Narratives - Education &
Experiences - Organizations &
Awards - Products &
Publications - Research
Highlights - Lab Notes
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Current Research
Life Cycle Cost Analysis for mass timber buildings in North American. Life Cycle Analysis on Cross-laminated-timber as tall building materials.Life Cycle Analysis on Biofuel, Bioproducts from forest or mill residues using modular biomass gasification system.Life Cycle Analysis on Nanocellulose produced from wood chips or paper pulp at a large scale. Life Cycle primary energy and carbon footprint of recovering wood from buildings for reuse and comparing to virgin wood building materials.
Research Interest
Environmental Building Declaration for mass timber buildings in North American. Environmental impacts from Biofuel, Bioproducts and newly developed biocomposite from woody biomass using Life Cycle Analysis techniques.Environmental Product Declaration research for wood and biomass products.Nanocellulose materials production and applications.Environmental impacts from woody biomass Nanocellulose production and applications.
Past Research
Implementing Cellulose NanoCrystals (CNC) and Cellulose NanoFribrils (CNF) mass production pilot plant;Model for Assessing the Climate Change Impact Associated with Wood Building Materials Reuse & recycling;Design and produce samples of patented new 3D Engineered Fiberboard from forests and agricultural residues;
Research Importance
Life cycle cost (LCC) analysis is an economic technique to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of building designs or explore trade-offs between intial costs and long-term cost savings, and to identify cost-effective systems for a given application. Life-cycle inventories (LCIs) and Life-cycle assessments (LCAs) of wood products are critically needed 1) to support LCA calculations and material selection decisions under Green Building codes and standards and 2) to provide data needed for environmental products declarations for wood products and thereby maintain their competitiveness.LCI and LCA information can aid wood product manufactureres and users by identifying and modifying processess that have the highest environmental impacts and thereby reduce the overall emissions. These information can also provide the policy makers with the insights to lead sustainable management practices in the forest products industries.
Education
- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Ph.D. Wood Science and Forest Products , 2001
- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, M.S. Wood Science and Forest Products , 1998
- Beijing Forestry University, B.S. Forest Engineering , 1987
Professional Experience
- Forest Products Technologist, USDA Forest Products Laboratory 2013 - Current Carrying research on economic impacts from mass timber buildings using LCC tool, and environmental impacts from Biofuel and Bioproducts conversion from forest and mill residues using modular Biomass thermal conversion unit.
- President, Founder, B-One Technology Consulting, LLC 2008 - 2013 Assisting Forest Products Lab with developing the first pilot line for mass producing Cellulose NanoCrystal and Cellulose NanoFribrils; Studying carbon footprints for recycled wood building materials and comparing the environmental impacts between the reused materials and virgin building materials; Developing patented 3D-engineered fiberboard using recycled or agricultural fibers;
Professional Organizations
- IUFRO Working Party 5.12.01- Life Cycle Analysis of Forest Products, Officeholder To lead a Research Group in its scientific and business activities; To initiate and encourage the organization of meetings and scientific study tours of the Research Group and Working Parties between Congresses, to organize Research Group meetings during Congresses, to be responsible for the programme of these meetings, and normally to act as their Chair; To suggest topics or problems to involve the Research Group; To propose the programmes of work of the IUFRO Research Group and Working Parties; To prepare and distribute periodic reports of the Research Group activities To arrange for publications related to the Research Group activities; (2016 - Current)
- Society of Wood Science and Technology (SWST), Member Presenting research at SWST annual conferences; reviewing manuscripts for the Wood & Fiber Science journal related to wood physics and wood composite. Was one-term member of Wood Adward Committee, evaluating the candidates' award papers. (1997 - Current)
- Forest Products Society (FPS), Member Presenting research at the annual conferences; being a judge for Students' Poster competition; (1997 - 2007)
- Society of Wood Science and Technology (SWST), Chair Of The Visiting Scientist Committee Update the Visiting Scientists profile, communicating with the members, soliciting the applications, and evaluating the applications. (1997 - 2007)
Awards
- Sciety of Wood Science and Technology (SWST) George Marra Award -- First Place , 2019 The Award recognizes excellence in writing and research, given to the papers published in the four quarterly issues of Wood and Fiber Science Journal.
- Patent, 2013 Engineered Modeled Fiberboard Panels and Products Fabricated from the Panels
- The Best of Technical Paper Award, 2004 Won the award while attending and presenting a paper on "Finite Element Analyses of Two Dimensional, Anisotropic Heat Transfer in Wood using ANSYS" at the 2004 International ANSYS Conference
Below are the 41 US Forest Service publications sorted by year. You may re-sort the list by: Title, Date Posted, Category, Publication or Year.
Publication Year: 2019 | |
![]() Highlight ID: 1321 | Life Cycle Assessment of Activated Carbon from Woody Biomass Expanding biofuels and bioproducts production using forest biomass as feedstock contributes to not only alternatives to US fossil fuels, but also facilitates forest restoration treatments by providing new markets for management of woody biomass resid ... |
Publication Year: 2017 | |
![]() Highlight ID: 1270 | Environmental building declaration prepared using life cycle assessment An environmental building declaration for the Design Building on the Amherst campus of the University of Massachusetts was prepared from a whole building life cycle assessment on this first wood-concrete composite building using the emerging cross la ... |
![]() Highlight ID: 1294 | New bio-based technology uses waste wood to produce high-value activated carbon Forest Service scientists investigated making activated carbon products from renewable woody biomass material such as forest or mill residues for technology potential and environmental benefit with a comparison to commercial coal activated carbon. Th ... |
Title | Date Posted |
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Mature trees like this Elm can sequester more than 48 pounds of carbon dioxide in a single year. Photo by USDA Forest Service
J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, once wrote, “I longed to devise a setting in which the trees might really march to war.”
If climate change is a ba... | 07-28-2021 |
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When the doors of the Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) opened in 1910, Eloise Gerry shouldered her way through as the first female scientist employed by the Forest Service. Her tenacity, moxie, and remarkable talent produced a storied 44-year career with over 120 publications.
Eloise Gerry, firs... | 03-22-2021 |
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Copyright atelierjones. Used by permission.
Like a raging forest fire, climate change has many fronts. And it won’t be fixed by a singular solution. Heroic systemic changes throughout all sectors are needed in order to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Cars, factory smokestacks, and c... | 04-21-2020 |