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Wood chipboard, common in interior spaces for applications ranging from furniture to decorative panelling, often falls short due to the presence of toxic adhesives, posing risks to both human health and the environment. This research delves into the potential transformation of wood chipboard into a 100% bio-based product. Previous research has shown the possibility of the partial replacement of petrochemical-based adhesives with bio-based adhesives. Hence, previous results do not reach the policy ambitions of the Green Deal of making the Green Transition to a bio-based economy. For chipboard production, logging residues from Latvian State Forests were systematically gathered within two months post-logging, comprising primarily Picea abies and Pinus sylvestris biomass, including branches, needles, bark, and various particles. A custom chipper and Vibrotehnik PM-120 hammer mill were employed for particle size separation into three fractions via sieving: <2.8 mm, 2.8–8 mm, and 8.0–10.0 mm, and combined with binders and hot-pressed into board samples. As a result, particle boards containing 100% bio-based carbon were achieved, demonstrating the possibility of excluding petroleum adhesives from chipboard production, paving the way for new research exploring bio-based binders and conifer bark.
1 January 2021 in Environmental and Climate Technologies
Many authors have discussed the paradigm shift in economy from linear to circular. Population growth and climate change caused resource scarcity are the main driving forces of shifting to circularity approach. Although consumers have been slower regarding transitioning to more sustainable economy, production companies are the ones who have felt the scarcity of resources first. In this paper we are exploring cross-laminated timber (CLT) production residue utilization possibilities for new product production and using multi-criteria analysis calculating the most promising recycling alternative from the perspective of companies working with wood as raw material. Data matrix for multi-criteria analysis was constructed from literature analysis gathering data on five criteria: (1) production costs; (2) energy consumption; (3) CO2 emissions; (4) product market price and (5) final product to wood residues ratio. Multi-criteria analysis showed that production of mycelium insulation material is the most promising alternative for CLT production residue recycling.
Today cold chain transportation has become more important than before, as countries rely on cold chain logistics to store and transport SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and other temperature-sensitive goods. The cold chain is usually associated with the use of non-renewable materials and higher energy consumption than the regular supply chain. An important part of cold chain sustainability is thermal packaging. Up to now one of the most popular thermal packaging materials is polystyrene – made from fossil raw material. Polystyrene has low thermal conductivity and density, but it breaks down into micro- and nano plastics when exposed to sunlight making it environmentally unsustainable. To determine which factors are important for cold chain regarding thermal packaging, 12 criteria were compared to determine their ranking. Further multi-criteria analysis was used to compare polystyrene to four alternative biodegradable thermal packaging options: mycelium-based, corn starch, non-woven wool, and non-woven feathers. Polystyrene gained only 3rd place with a 0.70 proximity to ideal solution 1, but non-woven wool showed the best result with 0.88 proximity to ideal solution.
1 November 2020 in Environmental and Climate Technologies
Due to growing topicality of indirect land use change, greater shift towards second generation biofuels should be observed. In order to help smaller biogas and bioethanol producers, multi-criteria analysis of lignocellulose pre-treatment is conducted to elucidate the most preferable approach for lignocellulose pre-treatment. There are four main pre-treatment groups – biological, chemical, physical and physochemical pre-treatment. In this article three pre-treatment types were described by highlighting their specific approaches; using multi-criteria analysis a conclusion was reached that the most preferable pre-treatment option for lignocellulose biomass like corn stover or sugarcane is microbiological pre-treatment, as it showed the closest proximity to ideal solution.