Environmental product design of Wood-Plastic Composites

Transcription

1 End-of-Life Environmental product design of Wood-Plastic Composites Philipp Sommerhuber Thünen Institute of Wood Research Resources Production Page SWST International Convention Use

2 Marie Curie ITN CASTLE Initial Training Network (ITN) for Early Stage Researchers (ESR) 14 full time ESRs with international background 9 partner institutes in Europe Bioeconomy understand demands of sustainability from the point of view of both sciences and the business world ESR 6: Life Cycle Assessment of Wood-Plastic Composites CASTLE conference in Barcelona in Oct Page 1

3 Agenda Market situation of wood consumption in Germany Potential secondary resources for WPC Mechanical characterization of selected secondary and primary resources for WPC Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) considerations for WPC Page 2

4 Germany; imports are excluded; year = 2011 Source: adapted from Seintsch & Weimar (2012) Page 3

5 Competing demand for biomass, Germany Consumption (domestic) = Production + Import - Export Source: IPCC (2013) Quo vadis? Renewable Energy Directive Bioeconomy Page 4 Source: FAOstat; own calculation

6 Mio tonnes WPC production and use is increasing Page 5 North America China Europe Japan Russia South East Asia South America India Source: adapted from Asta Eder & nova-institut, 2013

7 Key challenges for wood-processing industry and for WPC in Germany Decrease of softwood availability (i.e. spruce, pine) Increase of hardwood availability (i.e. beech) Sustainable forest management and eco-functionality Volatile price situation for raw materials Burning of fresh wood instead of material utilization Burning of waste wood which has high potentials for cascade use crude oil derivate Ecological optimization of products through pressure from society and political initiatives Page 6

8 Bioeconomy Competing demand for biomass Fossil fuel substitution Environmental product design considerations Secondary raw materials for WPC Cascade use of resources Increase of recycling (content) Renewable Energy Directive Volatile price situation Page 7

9 Wood fiber demand for WPC 0.08 Mio m³ Germany; Imports are excluded; year = 2011 Source: adapted from Seintsch & Weimar (2012), Mantau et al. (2012), Eder (2013) Page 8

10 Packaging waste sources Potential Recycled Plastics Polyolefine (PE, PP) Mio tonnes Europe Total WPC demand Germany Total WPC demand PE PP Source: adapted from Asta Eder & nova-institut (2013), Consultic (2012), own calculations Page 9

11 Potential vs. Availability of secondary plastic resources 13% 31% Material Recycling Energetical Recycling Recycling loss 56% Page 10

12 Packaging waste sources Availability Recycled Plastics Polyolefine (PE, PP) 1,000 tonnes 600 Germany PE 5% PP 20% Recycled plastics for material use Total WPC demand Source: adapted from Asta Eder & nova-institut (2013), Consultic (2012), own calculations Page 11

13 Page 12 Source: Plastics Europe (2015) adapted from Consultic

14 Design of experiment Wood content 0 %-wood 30 %-wood 60 %-wood Label A B C D E F Waste wood AI-AII % - 58% - Recycled HDPE 100% - 68% - 39% - Virgin spruce % - 58% Virgin HDPE - 100% - 68% - 39% MaPE - - 3% 3% 3% 3% Wood + plastic = 100% 3% MaPE = 97% Page 13

15 Mechanical characterization Page 14

16 Mechanical characterization Page 15

17 Mechanical characterization Page 16

18 Life Cycle Assessment Page 17

19 Key messages Future availability of suitable wood resources (particles, chips etc.) for harvest timber production in Germany is questionable Volatile price situation of plastics (crude oil) and wood particles Plastic and wood consumption is increasing - waste stream is increasing WPC production is projected to increase A ratio of 30% recycled wood and 70% recycled HDPE is beneficial in terms of mechanical properties of WPC and ressource efficiency LCA and ratings by Multi Criteria Analysis (MCA) will provide further answers in terms of environmental product design Page 18

20 Questions and further information Dipl.-Ing. Philipp Sommerhuber Thünen Institute of Wood Research Phone: +49 (0) Mail: Web: / The research leading to these results has been supported by the EU through the Marie Curie Initial Training Networks (ITN) action CASTLE, grant agreement no The contents of this publication reflect only the author s/authors views and the European Union is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. Page 19