Paper, Ash and Resin: Valorisation of Foundation Industry Waste Streams

A new project aims to reduce the amount of Foundation Industries’ waste sent to landfill by utilising it in an eco-friendly alternative to chipboard – making use of by-products, and also offering a lower-carbon, lower-impact alternative to MDF and other particle boards, which are widely used in flooring, furniture and construction.

“Better use of waste streams can reduce the amount going to landfill, replace the use of scarce or expensive virgin resources, and reduce overall carbon footprint – all at a lower cost to these industries,” says Professor Xiaobin Zhao, founder of materials technology business Cambond, which led the Paper, Ash and Resin: Valorisation of Foundation Industry Waste Streams project. “It can turn environmental problems into a valuable commercial opportunity.”

The UK manufactures 4 million m³ of panels a year, most of which are bonded with oil-based glues, such as urea formaldehyde – but there’s growing demand for bio-based alternatives to these resins. Cambond created a bio-resin using the waste grain from the bioethanol industry, which uses about 40% less carbon than the production of urea formaldehyde. Using funding from the Transforming Foundation Industries challenge, it worked with the world-leading pulp specialist Sappi Biotech and the Bio-Composites Centre at Bangor University to develop and test a new ‘eco-board’ that is bonded with its bio-resin and also makes use of other waste streams.

“By adding paper sludge, which is a waste product from the paper industry, and ash from power stations, we replaced the need for some of the virgin wood that usually makes these boards,” explains Prof Zhao. “Using our bio-resin, which significantly reduces the energy requirements in production, alongside these upcycled waste materials achieves a twofold benefit for the UK’s Foundation Industries – and creates the lowest carbon board currently available in the world.”

The waste materials also contain elements that can give the boards additional properties. The ash, for example, can improve fire resistance. So, it removes the need to treat a finished board with more – potentially toxic – chemicals.

“Better use of waste streams can reduce the amount going to landfill, replace the use of scarce or expensive virgin resources, and reduce overall carbon footprint – all at a lower cost to these industries.”

Samples of chip board produced using the Cambond manufacturing process showing coloured flecks

Crucially, the project team tested manufacture of the eco-boards in a commercial setting, working with a wood panel manufacturer and the Bio-Composites Centre at Bangor University. “There’s no use in inventing a wonderful new product if it requires manufacturers to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on reconfiguring or buying new machinery. Our tests proved the boards are entirely compatible with existing manufacturing processes,” says Dr Gareth Roberts, co-founder and Head of Business Development at Cambond. “Our next step is the creation of a pilot plant to start bulk manufacture of the resin. It’s a market valued at £550m in the UK and £3bn in the EU.”

Demonstrating the bio-resin can be produced at scale in the UK is important because the quantities required by industry are significant – the UK alone uses around a million tonnes of urea formaldehyde glue a year. The project also explored the use of waste ash in composites for ceramics and moulding.

These innovations show there is huge scope for utilising waste materials, but it is important for this clean growth to operate in a localised way, says Prof Zhao. “It makes no sense for huge quantities of paper sludge or other waste to be shipped around the world. Our aim is that Cambond technology will be used to help industries find economic, more environmentally friendly ways to utilise the waste in their locality.”

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