GERMANY - Dieffenbacher and 19 organisations from seven countries have joined forces in the EcoReFibre research project to make the production of wood fibreboards such as medium-density and high-density fibreboards (MDF and HDF) more sustainable.

EcoReFibre stands for “Ecological solutions for recovery of secondary materials from post-consumer fibreboards”. Its aim is to recycle wood fibres at the end of their lifecycle and use them to produce new fibreboard. Currently, fresh wood is used almost exclusively to produce wood fibreboard.

The four-year project, which kicked off in May, has 12 million euros in funding from the European Union through its research and innovation funding program Horizon Europe. The project partners, which include wood-based panel manufacturers Homanit and Sonae Arauco, intend to develop and test solutions that will enable up to 25% of the fresh wood fibers used to manufacture wood fiberboards to be replaced by recycled secondary fibers. Five pilot projects will also explore how recycled wood fibers can be used to manufacture new end products such as insulation materials and biocomposites.

“More than 100 million cubic metres of wood fibreboard are produced worldwide every year — almost exclusively from fresh wood. The industry urgently needs a sustainable recycling solution here,” explained Matthias Graf, who leads the project at Dieffenbacher.

“With the innovative technologies and business models that we will develop as part of the EcoReFibre project, we will take the circular economy in the MDF and HDF industry a big step forward.”