Production of wood-based panel from recycled wood resource: a literature review

Abstract This article presents and discusses the available studies on utilization of waste wood (WW) resource for wood-based panel production. The cited literature indicated that the majority of WW research was from Europe and conducted mainly on recycled material from particleboard. In addition, particleboard was presented as the first option of wood-based panel product manufactured from waste wood. There was a lack of research on the recycling of plywood. Physical and chemical contaminants fluctuated strongly between low- and high-quality recycled wood mixes depending on their origins. Findings from studies also noticed that wood-based panels (e.g., particleboard) could be produced from 100% WW. However, the physical and mechanical properties of wood-based panel drop with the high proportion of WW content due to the decrease in slenderness ratio and increase in contaminants. Moreover, formaldehyde emission content of particleboard and Oriented Strand Board (OSB) manufactured from WW particles increases when the WW percentage increases. Contrary, the formaldehyde amount decreases with the increase in recycled fiber content in fiberboards. Notably, the properties and emission of recycled wood composite products could be improved by applying high-tech sorting technologies, appropriate chipping techniques, pretreatment steps and formaldehyde-free binders during waste wood handling and production process.