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Above left, figure 1: Historical, global production of wood-based panels based on data published by FAOSTAT.
Above right, figure 2: A small sample of randomly selected particles intended for the core layer of a particleboard. If you study the photograph, then you will see many softwood particles, some hardwood, some particleboard, plywood, some plastic and particles of fibreboard
piles sampled in May-July, ie hot months. In contrast, samples collected in January had an average moisture content of 32%. The round wood used to make particleboard tends to be small diameter, coming from thinnings and treetops. Such wood tends to contain a lot of sapwood, which has a high moisture content. For example, the moisture content of the sapwood of most softwoods is in excess of 100%. This is why particleboard manufacturers who use PCWW will need much less energy to dry the particles they require for their products.
CHALLENGES OF RECYCLED FIBREBOARD USE IN NEW PARTICLEBOARD PRODUCTION
The rapid and dramatic success of fibreboard, especially MDF, has increased the proportion of fibreboard in the PCWW
stream. This is problematic for particleboard manufacturers because fibreboard breaks into non-ideal particles in terms of shape, surface roughness and internal fissures, as can be seen in figure 2. Consequently, fibreboard particles
create zones of weakness in particleboards. Adding more adhesive and/or pressing the
Approximately 81 million cubic metres of MDF waste will be
created across the globe during 2025. This volume is not far off the volume of new MDF made in the same year. This is a lot of waste that should be recycled Dr Mark Irle
particleboards to higher densities can ensure adequate mechanical properties, but both solutions increase production cost. Therefore, more PCWW could be
incorporated into particleboards if the fibreboard was removed before final chipping. The EcoReFibre project is directly addressing this problem. The project is transferring previous research on particle sorting to make a sorting line that can remove most of the deleterious fibreboard particles at commercial production speeds. There is surprisingly little data on PCWW streams. We do not know for sure how much is generated in Europe nor how much fibreboard is present in it.
The proportion of fibreboard present in the waste stream is dependent on: (1) The historical consumption of fibreboard and (2) The lifespan of products containing
Above left: Post consumer wood waste Above right: Categorising wood waste
www.wbpionline.com | February/March 2025 | WBPI
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