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BIONÆR-Bionæringsprogram

Increased valorisation of domestic timber by a novel wood modification system

Alternative title: Økt verdi av norske treslag ved hjelp av en ny tremodifisering

Awarded: NOK 6.2 mill.

The ValorWood project has created durable wood products with reduced environmental impact and cost, by utilisation of domestic timber from sustainable forestry and chemicals from renewable resources. A novel wood modification system using a combination of sorbitol and citric acid in wood has been studied in the ValorWood project and has shown enhanced properties such as increased dimensional stability and increased durability against decay fungi. In addition, veneer was treated and glueing and self-laminating was studied for engineered wood products. Furthermore, particle boards from treated solid wood shaving were produced. The development of this novel wood modification system from bench scale to pilot scale was successfully performed and resulted in the commercial exit of Ciol® and Ciol AS via the PolySorb project with the contribution of ValorWood.

A new water-based wood treatment methods was developed, based on bio-derived chemicals. The treatment significantly improved the resistance against decay fungi, termites and marine borers and increased dimensional stability. New engineered products were also produced using the same technology. In addition, wood-based panels were manufactured from shavings of treated solid wood. The mechanism controlling decay resistance in modified wood has been identified, which has immediate and substantial impact on the wood protection community. Efficient utilisation of national wood resources as long-lived building materials will play an important role in mitigating climate change by extending carbon storage. The use of local timber also reduces environmental impact. The research contributed to the registration of the trademark Ciol® and the founding of Ciol AS. The company will scale-up and commercialize this technology further, which will benefit the Norwegian wood industry and the environment by substituting wood products with end-of-life issues due to biocides or more energy/carbon-intensive materials.

Increasingly stringent environmental regulation is restricting the use of biocides for wood protection. At the same time, climate change is altering the environment and exposing exterior wood products to more and more severe decay environment. The risk is that as a consequence, less timber will be used in construction. However, increasing the use of wood in the built environment provides climate change mitigation opportunities, by substituting more energy/carbon-intensive materials and also by the storage of sequestered atmospheric carbon in buildings. ValorWood addresses these multiple challenges through the development of a new wood impregnation-modification system that will provide non-biocidal wood protection by using low-cost reagents derived from renewable resources. Commercially-available wood impregnation-modification processes usually rely on the use of highly permeable radiata pine sapwood imported from New Zealand, or to a lesser extent Scots pine. Use of the Norwegian forest resource for impregnation-modification processes is very limited. ValorWood will examine the potential for using Norway spruce, Scots pine and birch grown in Norway as feedstock for the new wood modification process. This will add considerable value to these species and open up markets which have not been previously available. The ValorWood process will be low-cost, low environmental impact and add value to the Norwegian forest sector and harvested wood products value chain. Adoption of the process by industry will create jobs in and increase activity in the rural economy.

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Funding scheme:

BIONÆR-Bionæringsprogram