38 | Focus on Recycled Wood: LCA study
LCA FIBRE STUDY
MDF produced from MDF Recovery’s recycled fibre process succeeds in reducing the environmental impact of the board, according to new Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) results
A
Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) study, conducted by Eunomia Research and
Consulting Ltd, has provided valuable validation to the sustainability credentials of MDF Recovery’s recycled fibre process. The study, produced with funding support from Innovate UK, shows that inclusion of 30% recycled fibre content [from the MDFR process] achieves a direct reduction in carbon footprint of 12% during the board manufacturing process.
Substitution of virgin fibres in this way, the analysis says, succeeds in reducing the environmental impact of the MDF board in the vast majority of the studied impact categories.
In addition, the report forecasts that further reductions in carbon footprint are possible if renewable or biomass-based energy sources are used in the process. A higher recycled content within board production could also further enhance the environmental performance. The study provides a helpful comparison with MDF board made from 100% virgin fibres.
It explores the environmental impact of using different ratios of virgin and recovered wood fibre in the production of MDF board.
Results are presented for 20%, 30%, and 60% recovered wood content MDF, all compared with 100% virgin MDF. All of the recovered wood fibre used is assumed to be the product of the MDFR process. The assessment uses the EU Commission’s
Environmental Footprint impact assessment methods (EF3.1). To evaluate the environmental profile of the systems, all EF 3.1 impact categories were assessed for the overall cradle-to-gate Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA). “Recovered fibres produced by the MDFR process and subsequently dried to the level required for MDF board manufacture use less energy in their production than virgin wood fibres,” concludes the study. “Therefore, using recovered fibres sourced from the MDFR process to replace conventional virgin wood fibres in the production of MDF boards is attractive from the perspective of climate change, photochemical ozone formation, land use, and fossil fuel resource use impact categories. “It is therefore recommended to maximise the quantity of recovered fibres produced from the MDFR process within future MDF production.”
The impact categories used in the report
differ to those that could be shown in an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD). Further work will revise the LCA by robustly considering biomass and end-of-life wood products as energy sources, the biogenic nature of the material as well as electricity from renewable sources. It is expected that further reductions of 30-50% in kgCO2 equivalent could be achieved by considering these factors. MDF Recovery has an agreement with prolific global recycling technology business PAL (part of the Italy-based IMAL PAL Group), providing the latter with exclusive rights to integrate the MDFR process with its own leading wood cleaning and recycling technologies. PAL’s extensive experience in recycling
technology had seen it heavily involved in the early days of using recycled wood in the particleboard industry, particularly in Italy where PB production uses a lot of waste wood. It has since sold systems around the world. PAL had already developed a sorting
system to separate waste MDF from other waste wood, as this is a crucial requirement for PB manufacturers who do not want waste MDF fractions contaminating their waste wood material infeed. The first commercial contract for the partnership to recycle MDF fibre is for use in the manufacture of woodfibre insulation. The latter development involves PAL supply MDF recycling technology to UK MDF mouldings manufacturer W Howard – a project currently being implemented. Fibreboard recycling capacity is expected to be about 750kg/hr, according to PAL. MDFR’s technology is promoted as the
world’s first low energy, low water solution for the effective recycling of waste MDF. For MDFR, having PAL on board with its
MDF board made with recycled MDF in the MDFR process WBPI | Summer 2026 |
www.wbpionline.com
recycling and cleaning expertise effectively means a complete system is able to be supplied for the sorting, cleaning and recycling of MDF waste. The process of recycling waste MDF fractions into usable MDF fibres centres on hydrolysis. Waste MDF fractions are immersed in hot water and energy used to break the glue bond, separating the fibres. After this process, the recycled fibres undergo a selection process, and the chosen recycled fibre is cleaned/dried before being ready to use.
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