Investigation on the utilization of urban wood residues in the production of particleboard

Based on the need and the importance of urban wood residues to fulfill part of the wood raw material for particleboard production, and to increase its value as raw material, the potential of such material including wood residues from pine and sycamore trees as well as grape fruit tree pruning for the production of particleboard was investigated. The results are compared with similar particleboard produced using particles from mixed hardwoods generated at the industrial scale mill. Laboratory boards at the density of 650 kg/m3 were made changing the resin dosage at three levels of 10, 11 and 12% based on the oven dry weight of the particles and the strength and thickness swelling of the boards were measured as defined in relevant EN standards. Due to the lower bulk density of particles from pine wood, boards produced using the particles generated the highest MOR and MOE, and the lowest MOR and MOE were measured on boards produced using particles from mixed hardwoods. However, the IB of the boards on mixed hardwoods and application of 12% resin was superior (1.18 MPa.) and the lowest 1B (0.36 MPa.) was measured on the boards produced using the mixture of 50% pine and 50% sycamore particles. The thickness swelling of the sycamore boards were inferior and the lowest thickness swelling was measured on the pine particleboards.