[Animats]

Right. Once you take the lignite out of wood, you have a porous structure into which you can put other liquids. There are other variations on this theme - super strong wood, conductive wood, etc.[1] Some of those tricks work on cellulose agricultural waste.

Probably the most useful idea in this direction is oriented-strand board from bagasse, the long strands left after sugar is remove from sugar cane. Layers oriented in different directions are glued together, like plywood, to make something like particleboard, but with better tensile strength. It's a low-end composite material.

[1] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/stronger-than-ste...

[sidewndr46]

Is that product commercially available at low prices? Regular OSB took a while for me to understand but now that I do it's used in all sorts of stuff I build. It's cheap and much more dimensional than lumber, which often has a slight warp to it.

[Animats]

It used to be sold on a large scale by Cellotex. That company also sold asbestos board and went bankrupt due to liabilities from the asbestos business. Some company called Knight LLC ended up with the board business, but they seem to have gone bankrupt in 2010.

[_Microft]

You certainly meant to write „lignin“ there. (Lignite is a type of coal).

[Animats]

Right. Having seen both materials in large quantities, I know.