Topic A.4: Characterization of the intermediate products from recycling during the cascade utilization of wood and wood products with regard to their further material utilization

The implementation of many types of cascade utilization often lacks technological approaches to the multiple use of wood products. The wood used for wood products (furniture, supporting structures, horticulture, landscaping, etc.) is substantially changed during the production process (sawn, manufacturing of woodchips, glueing, bonding with other material, etc.). Consequently, after a “first life” in the product, the material is not available for recycling via conventional decomposition (pulping) processes and is normally used for the generation of energy due to a lack of knowledge of regeneration. To implement further material utilization, scenarios are needed – and technologies in a next step – to extract fibers for industrial use from used wood products. The first step in this topic is a characterization of the recycling intermediate products based on chemical and physical analyses (see topics A.2 and A.3). This can be based on preliminary work of the principal investigator (Wimmer, Teischinger, 2003; Eder et al., 2004; Wimmer et al., 2008; Gregorova et al., 2009).

Suitable decomposition processes are developed for selected material flows – which are based on these materials’ properties – to extract woodchips and fibers from recycled material. Based on the woodchips and fibers’ characterization, a few key products should be manufactured as prototypes from recycled woodchips and fibers and their technological utilizability (as chipboard, fiberboard, and wood plastic composites) assessed. This will allow new ideas on possible utilizable recycling material flows, possible technologies for the decomposition of fibers and woodchips, as well as ideas on their chemical and technological properties, creating new ways of utilizing recycled woodchip products. Material without further material utilization possibility is analyzed in topic A.7 with regard to the possible generation of energy.