Recycling of Laminated Particleboard

This research will focus on the development of recycling solutions for laminated particleboard after services. To effectively recycle the wood particles from the used particleboard as suitable raw material, it needs to remove the cured adhesives from particleboard, usually urea-formaldehyde (UF) resins. It is well known that cured UF resins are susceptible to hydrolysis so the decomposing particleboard panels will allow to recover particles. In the current research proposal, we are aiming to recycle particleboard via a thermohydrolytic treatment (treated with steam, pressure, and heat), and use the recovered particles as raw materials to manufacture particleboard panels. Several physical and chemical properties of recycled particles will be investigated to evaluate its quality in comparison with the virgin particles. Furthermore, the effect of the weight ratio of recycled and virgin particles on the mechanical properties of particleboard panels will be also evaluated. TO BE CONT’D

Faculty Supervisor:

Alain Cloutier

Student:

Qilan Fu

Partner:

FPInnovations

Discipline:

Visual arts

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

Program: