Biomass waste, which is biodegradable and vastly underutilized, is generated in huge quantities worldwide. Forestry and agricultural biomass wastes are notable for their wide availability, high yield, biodegradability, and recyclability. The accumulation of these wastes not only occupies valuable land but causes serious environmental pollution, which can ultimately harm human health. Therefore, leveraging scientific technology to convert forestry and agricultural bio-waste into bioenergy and other valuable products is crucial. In this paper, common forestry and agricultural bio-waste such as straw, rice husks, livestock manure, tree branches, sawdust, and bioenergy (bioethanol, biogas, biodiesel, biohydrogen) were selected as keywords, with the theme of green and efficient utilization. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the sources of biomass waste, existing recycling technologies, and the potential of forestry and agricultural bio-waste as material additives and for conversion to biomass energy and other derivatives, along with future recycling prospects.

Inherent drawbacks (e.g., loose structures, dimensional instabilities, and poor mechanical performances) restrict the applications of fast-growing wood species. In this study, a thermal compression treatment was carried out to densify acetylated spruce wood. The aim of acetylation was to improve the plasticity and water resistance of spruce wood. The water absorption, set-recovery, surface hardness, modulus of rupture, modulus of elasticity, and microstructure of the resulting wood were analyzed. The results show that acetylation can improve the plasticity of wood and reduce the interaction between wood and water, significantly reducing the set recovery of the compressed wood. When the water immersion time reaches 168 h, the water absorption rate of wood is reduced by 37% after acetylation, and the densification can further reduce the water absorption (55% for AD-40 and 70% for AD-60). The hardness of the densified wood is significantly higher than that of control wood and increases with the increase of the compression ratio. The cell wall of acetylated wood is thicker than that of control wood, which could increase the compression density of the wood. As a result, the hardness and MOR of acetylated densified wood are remarkably higher than that of unacetylated densified wood. However, a high compression ratio (60%) could lead to structural damage and, thus, reduce the mechanical properties.

As global efforts towards green development intensify, eco-friendly materials have become pivotal to achieving sustainability. Wood, a natural, renewable, and environmentally benign biomass, holds great promise for green material applications due to its abundance and ecological benefits. Recent advances in functional modification techniques—such as oxidation, grafting, and nanoparticle incorporation—have significantly enhanced wood’s physical and chemical properties while introducing new environmental functions. These developments have expanded its applications in pollution control, resource recovery, and environmental restoration. In particular, modified wood exhibits outstanding adsorption capacity for heavy metal ions (Pb²⁺, Cd²⁺, Cu²⁺), offering an efficient and sustainable approach to water pollution remediation. This paper reviews the fundamental structure and properties of wood, summarizes recent progress in the development of functionalized wood for heavy metal ion adsorption, and analyzes the influence of various modification methods on adsorption performance. Finally, it outlines future directions for optimizing wood functionalization technologies, providing theoretical foundations and practical guidance for advancing their applications in wastewater treatment and heavy metal pollution control.

Transparent wood has excellent optical and thermal properties and has great potential utilization value in energy-saving building materials, optoelectronic devices, and decorative materials. In this work, transparent wood with soft-/hard-switchable and shape recovery capabilities was prepared by introducing an epoxy-based polymer with a glass transition temperature of about 0 °C into the delignified wood template. The epoxy resin was well filled in the pore structure of the delignified wood, and the as-prepared wood exhibited excellent transparency; the optical transmittance and haze of the transparent wood with a thickness of 2.0 mm were approximately 70% and 95%, respectively. Because the glass transition temperature of the epoxy-based polymer was about 0 °C, the prepared transparent wood was rigid below 0 °C and flexible above °C; meanwhile, the transparent wood exhibited shape change and shape recovery properties. Incorporating optical transparency and soft-/hard-switchable ability into the transparent wood opens a new avenue for developing advanced functional wood-based materials.