Wood recycling is common practice in most countries. Currently, recovered wood is used for relatively low value uses including energy generation, particleboard manufacture, animal beddings and landscape uses. This paper gives an overview of two research projects that aim to generate high-value products from recovered wood and thereby encourage even higher rates of wood recycling. One project is concerned with the extraction of nano-crystalline cellulose from waste MDF and the other produces laminated beams from recovered wood.

Some wood species have antimicrobial properties, making them a better choice over inert surfaces in certain circumstances. However, the organic and porous nature of wood raises questions regarding the use of this material in hygienically important places. Therefore, it is reasonable to investigate the microbial survival and the antimicrobial potential of wood via a variety of methods. Based on the available literature, this review classifies previously used methods into two broad categories: one category tests wood material by direct bacterial contact, and the other tests the action of molecules previously extracted from wood on bacteria and fungi. This article discusses the suitability of these methods to wood materials and exposes knowledge gaps that can be used to guide future research. This information is intended to help the researchers and field experts to select suitable methods for testing the hygienic safety and antimicrobial properties of wood materials.

In this study, the viability of acetylation in cellulose fibers waste (CFW) from pulp and paper mill sludge was investigated in comparison to bleached cellulose fibers (BCF). Four acetylation methodologies were applied. The inorganic ash composition of the CFW was determined by Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry (EDS). The Degree of substitution (DS) of the acetylated fibers and their characterization using Fourier Transformed Infrared (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and Scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) were carried out. Results showed that the different acetylation methods are not effective for the esterification of CFW largely due to a high mineral content in their composition. The acetylation promoted the removal of the inorganic content in the CFW resulting in low efficacy levels. In BCF, higher efficiency levels were achieved, varying according to the methods. The different acetylation methods showed an efficiency range from 0.02 to 1.76 depending on the type of fiber.