Research in decontaminating recovered wood for multiple re-uses
fraunhofer-second-life-recovered-wood.jpg
A Fraunhofer Intitut physicist using a hand-held X-ray fluorescence to test sections of salvaged window stiles and scantlings for the presence of inorganic wood preservatives.

Photo By ©Fraunhofer WKI/Simone Peist

BRAUNSCHWEIG, Germany - Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research have established that it is possible to salvage large pieces of wood and recycle them repeatedly without any loss of quality.
 
But removal of chemical contaminants - paint and solvents, for example - is needed to allow the fiber to be used freely for things other than fuel, such as furnishings and paneling. A recently completed study at Fraunhofer points to methods that may be used for detecting and removing contaminants.
 
Physicists using a hand-held X-ray fluorescence to test sections of salvaged window frame parts for the presence of inorganic wood preservatives.Most waste wood today is either used for heating or chipped to produce particleboard. The aim of European-funded CaReWood (Cascading Recovered Wood) project is to reuse this secondary raw material several times over – for example in house-building or to make furniture.
 
Wood from demolition could be reclaimed, says the Cascading Recovered Wood Project
 
In addition to wood's qualities as a universal construction material, it can also be reused but this sort of cascading recycling is still the exception in Europe, where most waste wood is either chipped to produce particleboard or incinerated. In some countries, like France, it is dumped in landfill sites, a practice forbidden in Germany, where waste wood is generally used as fuel in power-generation plants, but without the intermediate stage of reusing it as a building material or for other purposes.

Upcycling wood instead of downcycling

Researchers at the Institute looked at methods required to reuse salvaged wood several times over, an approach being investigated in the EU-funded CaReWood or Cascading Recovered Wood project. A consortium of 15 project partners in five countries has set out to promote the cascaded use of solid wood in value-added applications that promise to improve the efficiency of the materials cycle.
 
“Other recycling options ought to be considered before incinerating waste wood to produce energy or converting it immediately into chips for particle board production," says Peter Meinlschmidt, a physicist working at the Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research WKI. 
"For example, large quantities of excellent-quality timber can be recovered from building renovation and demolition sites. This even applies to salvaged wood that has been superficially treated with wood preservatives, as we were able to prove in our tests. The challenge is to develop recycling methods that allow old roof beams and other large pieces of timber to be kept intact for further use as building materials.”
 
Meinlschmidt and his colleagues were tasked with identifying suitable measurement techniques that could be used to detect the presence of contaminants in wood and develop efficient surface cleaning processes.
 
According to the German Waste Wood Ordinance (Altholz V), waste wood categories A III and A IV are considered as potentially polluted. These types of waste wood may contain traces of plastics such as PVC or remnants of lead-based paints and other products containing heavy metals on their surface, or may be impregnated with hazardous substances such as DDT or PCBs, commonly found in old wood preservatives. For this reason, the law requires them to be incinerated. “But even if their surface might be contaminated, such lignocellulosic materials contain a not insubstantial volume of wood that could be recycled if suitable stripping and sorting processes were available,” says Meinlschmidt.
 

Removal of heavy metals and wood preservatives

The scientists use several methods, including laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), gas chromatography - field asymmetric ion mobility spectrometry (GC-FAIMS) and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIS), to determine whether wood is contaminated, and if so the depth to which the pollutants penetrate and how much surface material must be removed to eliminate them. The first two methods are ideally suited to detecting heavy metals, while the last two help detect traces of organic wood preservatives.
 
The test results show that it is sufficient to remove only a few millimeters of the outer layers. “Whatever the species of wood, and regardless of whether it was treated with wood preservatives or coated with paint or varnish, the recycled timber is free of undesirable substances,” says the researcher. The scientists also tested the bending strength and transversal stress resistance of the recovered wood to determine the mechanical stability of the underlying raw material. They used several different methods to clean the wood surface, including rotating brushes, sand-blasting with different abrasive media, sawmilling and planing. The Fraunhofer WKI researchers conducted their tests on shipping pallets and discarded window frames. “Another point in favor of upcycling is that recovered wood is often of better quality and more mechanically stable than new wood, because trees used to be allowed to grow more slowly than in the commercially managed forests planted in the past decades,” says the physicist.
 
The partners in the CaReWood project also see their work as a contribution to environmental protection. “Deforestation is on the increase again all over Europe, resulting in a declining availability of primary wood. Germany is an exception, however. Forests of conifers planted in previous decades are being allowed to grow wild, in the hope that this will encourage the return of native beeches – a species better adapted to the vagaries of the climate,” says Meinlschmidt.

Myanmar: New life for teak bridge support posts

The physicist and his fellow researchers have had an opportunity to demonstrate the environmental benefits of their work in Myanmar, where they are helping with the renovation of the world’s longest teak bridge, the U Bein Bridge. The old posts that support the deck of the bridge, some measuring ten meters in length, are successively being replaced. They will be kept entire and reused as handrails or rest benches along the 1.2-kilometer footbridge.
 
Meinlschmidt is confident that the trend toward the cascaded use of recovered wood will continue, not only in Germany, and that fewer recyclable materials will be incinerated as the easiest solution. One reason is the current revision of the German Waste Wood Ordinance. The updated version scheduled to enter force in 2018 gives greater emphasis to reclaiming materials for other uses rather than destroying them in incineration plants – a goal shared by the CaReWood project partners.

Have something to say? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

Profile picture for user billesler
About the author
Bill Esler | ConfSenior Editor

Bill wrote for WoodworkingNetwork.com, FDMC and Closets & Organized Storage magazines. 

Bill's background includes more than 10 years in print manufacturing management, followed by more than 30 years in business reporting on industrial manufacturing in the forest products industries, including printing and packaging at American Printer (Features Editor) and Graphic Arts Monthly (Editor in Chief) magazines; and in secondary wood manufacturing for WoodworkingNetwork.com.

Bill was deeply involved with the launches of the Woodworking Network Leadership Forum, and the 40 Under 40 Awards programs. He currently reports on technology and business trends and develops conference programs.

In addition to his work as a journalist, Bill supports efforts to expand and improve educational opportunities in the manufacturing sectors, including 10 years on the Print & Graphics Scholarship Foundation; six years with the U.S. WoodLinks; and currently on the Woodwork Career Alliance Education Committee. He is also supports the Greater West Town Training Partnership Woodworking Program, which has trained more than 950 adults for industrial wood manufacturing careers. 

Bill volunteers for Foinse Research Station, a biological field station staddling the border of Ireland and Northern Ireland, one of more than 200 members of the Organization of Biological Field Stations.