China’s wood waste recycling still has a long way to go, noted two Wood2Wood project representatives Nicolas Brosse and Jalel Labidi from University of Lorraine (LERMAB) and University of the Basque Country (UHE) respectively, who were invited as international experts to Kunming in China last year.

The experts presented the Wood2Wood project at the Southwest Forestry University and Yunnan Agricultural University. “The wood waste recycling seems to be not so developed in China. We visited a wood panel plant, and the raw material used was only fresh wood from the forest, no post-consumer wood. One of the goals of this presentation was to raise awareness among the audience about the post-consumer wood recycling,” said Nicolas from LERMAB (University of Lorraine in France), who is working on Use Case 2 in W2W project with UHE.

In Use Case 2, LERMAB will focus on wood pollutants/adhesives removal through steam explosion, whereas UHE will break down mixed waste (in cases where waste cannot be separated) with heat and chemicals (liquefaction) with organic catalysts for polyols production typically used to make plastics, foams and coatings.

Watch W2W Use Case 2 explainer video

As part of visit, Nicolas and Jalel also explored potential collaborations and interest among students who would be interested in the project. At least 25 academic and post-graduate students were present for the engagement and asked questions on the processes and chemistry behind the Use Case 2.

For more information on our Use Cases, visit our YouTube Channel: Wood2Wood Project – YouTube