“World’s first techno-economic viable recycling technology for waste woodboards”

Objective

Mankind uses wood as a raw material since the stone age. It has been perceived to be an abundantly available even renewable resource, it literally grows everywhere and people have a natural tendency to apply wood for their everyday use in many ways Nevertheless, Recently, demand for wood and wood-based products are significant increasing, not only for reaching the renewable energy target but also for bio-products for biorefineries. Unfortunately, many of these products have become nowadays commodity products with “short” lifespans. They still have not found their way to be fully reused or recycled, lacking appropriate techno–economic solutions. One of these commodity products - being produced at 11.000.000 ton/year and resulting in 10.000.000 m³ of landfilled material – is fibreboard (MDF board), one of the wood-board types used in many cheaper type of furniture. Act&Sorb developed a technology that addresses the societal challenge by having identified a high value large market– the wood based activated carbon market – currently using also fresh wood! Act&Sorb has been able – aligned with its overall vision and strategy – to design the MDF waste treatment process in such a way that the component within the MDF waste causing it to be difficult to be recycled – the glue – is turned into a valued resource – enabling the production of nitrogen incorporated wood-board waste activated carbon, a specialty product with high market value. The concept has the potential to treat the full amount of fiberboard waste while eliminating the need for fresh wood for the production of wood based activated carbon.

Fields of science

• social sciences › economics and business › economics › production economics
• engineering and technology › environmental engineering › energy and fuels › renewable energy
• engineering and technology › materials engineering › paper and wood
• engineering and technology › industrial biotechnology › biomaterials
• engineering and technology › environmental engineering › waste management › waste treatment processes › recycling
• social sciences › economics and business › business and management › commerce

Programme(s)

• H2020-EU.3.5. - SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Climate action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials
• H2020-EU.2.3.1. - Mainstreaming SME support, especially through a dedicated instrument

Topic(s)

• SMEInst-11-2016-2017 - Boosting the potential of small businesses in the areas of climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials

Call for proposal

H2020-SMEINST-1-2016-2017
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1

Coordinator

ACT&SORB

Address

Centrum-zuid 1111
3530 Houthalen-helchteren
Belgium

Activity type

Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)

EU contribution

€ 50 000