Objectives of the commitment
The main objective of the commitment is to implement actions for the growth of wood working industry recycling, based on the following topics:
âOptimization of waste recollection process under the technical and logistic point of view and consequent reduction of costs
âDevelopment of contaminants detection and removal technologies, sorting and reprocessing systems
âDevelopment of high value products from recovered wood by using enhanced recycling methods
âDevelopment of existing and new markets associated to the wood recycling
âDemonstration, through a multicriteria analysis, the viability under the economic, social and environmental point of view of the proposed actions
âImprovement of wood based product design for better product management during all its life span and for recycling.
Description of the activities
Waste prevention
Measures to support waste prevention according to Annex IV of the Waste Framework Directive: Most, 51 % focus on the design, production and distribution phase; 39 % are related to the consumption and use phase; while 10 % focus on the general framework of waste generation. New product design criteria and LCA methodology will be applied for achieving waste minimization and increased product and components recyclability.
Collection
At European level, the priority is the optimization of the collection and aggregation processes of scraps, in order to have quantities of recycled wood sufficiently large to guarantee the economic viability: thus, the aim of one of the activity implemented by the consortium, will be the study for the development of an organized technical and logistic mechanism ensuring the recycling of the majority of wood as well as the minimization of losses; this activity will be the necessary prerequisite to adopt legislative and infrastructural measures by policy makers and stakeholders in general.
Sorting and Recycling: towards zero wood waste
Moreover, considering its nature, waste wood is very heterogeneous: in fact, it's very common the utilization of a wide range of products that are made up with various wood species and non-wood components like paints adhesives, metal fixings and plastics. Therefore there is a need to develop reliable, automatic sorting and reprocessing systems to ensure that only non-preservative treated wood is recycled into new products. More in detail, it will be necessary the implementation of innovative technological solutions for the chemical and mechanical contaminants sorting and removal such as:
- Technologies for metal and non-wooden materials recovery from complex products;
- Technologies (detection and removing systems) to improve the cleanliness of recovered wood, by enhancing the purity of wood from chemical contaminants such as preservatives;
- Technologies to process and dispose contaminated removed parts and materials;
- Technology for wood product components to be sorted by wood quality;
- Technology for the introduction of the recycled component and materials in new products.
Since difficulties on controlling quality and the lack of universal versatile recycling processes hinder industrial optimisation and recycling, this will be addressed by defining the industrial input quality parameters to accept them as raw materials. In case any of the new products (being material or final product) developed does not have standards in place, actions will be started to address and propose standards for recycling.
In parallel, another activity will be the realization of a multi-criteria analysis in order to assess all the economic, social and environmental aspects of the whole recycling chain.
Description of the expected impacts
Waste recycling reduces consumption of natural resources, landscape degradation, groundwater contamination, and GHG emissions.
One of the most significant impacts is a better collecting process increasing the quantity of recycled wood and contribute to reduce landfilled wood. The research activity will be an important instrument for stakeholders and policy makers in order to effectively implement an enhanced collecting and sorting system.
On the other hand, about quality, the development of technologies will contribute to the realization of high values and less hazardous products like nano-crystalline cellulose, xylose and lignin-based adhesives: in this regard, it will be also important the lowering of the regulatory limits.
The enhancement of recycling process under the qualitative and quantitative point of view will be useful to further encourage the utilization of recycled wood for the manufacture of high-value products: wood wastes are recycled in the form of particles and the majority of recovered wood is used to make particleboard products (e.g. furniture components); moreover, the next most widespread method is to burn the recovered wood with energy recovery. Other end-uses include animal beddings and landscape mulches, but in general, the use of recovered wood in particle form has a very little added value. In this sense, the development of alternative recycling methods will add much more value to the recovered wood and this would provide more money for the recycling processes and, in turn, encourage more recycling. Recycled wood can be also combined with other recycled materials in order to obtain new products. Consequently, it will also be possible to develop new markets and increase the competitiveness of European production.
Coordinating organisation & role
Name of the coordinating organisation: CosmobCountry: ItalyEntity profile: OtherRole within the commitment:
The role of Cosmob within the commitment will be about the implementation of the following activities:
- evaluation, under a technological point of view, of performances of wood based products, in order to define the best practices and experiences of recycled wood;
- study and the research about the new products and composites made with recycled wood, in order to increase their mechanical, physical and chemical properties.
Other partners
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung e.V.
Name of the organisation: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung e.V. Country: Germany Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: Fraunhofer will lead the CFRP and GFRP recycling research.
Fraunhofer will perform corrosion tests on the developed materials.
Fraunhofer will work with CIDAUT on the implementation, validation and refinement of LCCA tools for the project. Fraunhofer is the Quality Manager of the Consortium and will oversee deliverables and general reporting are produced with the best possible quality following agreed review standards.
Fundacion Cidaut
Name of the organisation: Fundacion Cidaut Country: Spain Entity profile:
Role within the commitment: CIDAUT will lead the research activities on materials recycling and compounding, implementing lab scale demonstrators of each process at its premises and, later, supporting end-users upscale the processes.
CIDAUT will perform mechanical tests, microstructural analyses, injection moulding capability studies on the developed materails, and will work with Fraunhofer on the implementation, validation and refinement of LCCA tools for the project.
RWTH Aachen University (Institute of plastic processing (IKV)
Name of the organisation: RWTH Aachen University (Institute of plastic processing (IKV) Country: Germany Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: RWTH will implement the novel 3D Generative Preforming process (3D Fibre Spraying) that enables to create high-value long fibre-reinforced 3D preforms for thermoplastic and thermoset composites at low process costs (different kinds of yarn as a raw material, low tooling costs due to low cavity pressures). This cost effective technology allows to align the sprayed fibres in order to produce high-performance, engineered anisotropic products.
Universita' di Cagliari
Name of the organisation: Universita' di Cagliari Country: Italy Entity profile:
Role within the commitment: University of Cagliari is one of the leading European organization in the resin design and coupling with thermoplastic and thermose materials. University of Cagliari will support in the definition of the composite materials, both from CFRP/GFRP, ABS and Rare Earth composite material.
Relight
Name of the organisation: Relight Country: Italy Entity profile: Private sector - SME
Role within the commitment: RELIGHT will work with ITRB to provide the research partners with residues for the recycled ABS supply and the REE recovery processes, including their HydroWEEE process as part of the processes to be studied and analyzed.
Piaggio Aerospace
Name of the organisation: Piaggio Aerospace Country: Italy Entity profile: Private sector - large company
Role within the commitment: Piaggio Aerospace is one of the project End Users (Aeronautics Industry): as such it will provide requirements and further applications that could be developed with the Consortium Materials. Piaggio will assist in the compounds selection, provide Fraunhofer with specific corrosion requirements on business jet size aircraft, and will assess that the developed materials performance fits the selected applications desired improvements.
Blackshape Aircrafts
Name of the organisation: Blackshape Aircrafts Country: Italy Entity profile: Private sector - SME
Role within the commitment: Blackshape Aircrafts is one of the project End Users (Aeronautics Industry): as such it will provide requirements and further applications that could be developed with the Consortium Materials. Blackshape will support to fulfill the requirements of the aeronautics industry on ultra light jet, light jet and trainer for Syllabus, and will assess that the developed alloys performance fits the selected applications desired improvements.
KU Leuven
Name of the organisation: KU Leuven Country: Belgium Entity profile: Academia
Role within the commitment: KUL will collaborate on the balance problem studies and will lead the rare earth recovery research with the solvometallurgical and ionometallurgical processes.
KUL will also contribute to the final compounding selection.
KUL is the Dissemination Manager of the project, promoting that all partners are active on the project Dissemination.
FIDAMC
Name of the organisation: FIDAMC Country: Spain Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: FIDAMC is going to lead the Work Package on Compression Moulding with CFRP-enhanced materials. As part of the AIRBUS Group, FIDAMC will also be able to provide the input material.
FIDAMC successfully developed a 3D Printer of own design to serve the Aerospace Industry and will be supporting Smart Lab 3D Industries in its 3D printer design.
COMPOSITE INNOVATION CENTER
Name of the organisation: COMPOSITE INNOVATION CENTER Country: Canada Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: Composite Innovation Center is one of the world leading organization in the field of Composite materials, both from carbon fiber and vegetal-based fibers.
Composite Innovation center has successfully implemented, at lab-scale, recycling processes for CFRP and GFRP.
Existing EU Contribution: Yes
Period to implement the commitment: from 14-03-2016 to 13-03-2020