CD Laboratory for Next-generation wood-based biocomposite

This CD Laboratory is developing processes for the production and characterisation of sustainable biocomposite materials based on sawdust.

One of the most important challenges of the 21st century is the more extensive use of sustainable building materials, as the current trend towards more timber buildings already shows. These products not only create enormous added value, but also save large amounts of CO2. The value creation of timber products begins in sawmills, where logs are sawn into timber lamellas, the basic elements of modern timber construction products. However, the average sawn timber yield is only around 50% and is further reduced by additional processing steps up to the finished construction. A large proportion of this valuable raw material is burnt. The ingenious lightweight structure in the millimetre-sized sawmill by-products, which nature has developed over thousands of years to transfer loads efficiently, is thus destroyed forever and the CO2 bound in it is released.

This CD Laboratory is therefore researching how valuable substances such as lignin, hemicellulose and extractives can be recovered from wood chips, wood shavings and bark in such a way that the high-strength wood microstructure is retained as far as possible. The lignocellulose network obtained can then be combined to form new building materials using moulding or even additive manufacturing processes.

The composition and cross-linking ability of the extracted components can be controlled by the type of pre-treatment of the sawmill by-products and combined into a homogeneous, processable mixture. This mixture subsequently forms chemical bonds through processes such as fibre swelling, impregnation and precipitation of additives and thus becomes a stable biocomposite material. In order to gain a fundamental understanding of all the underlying mechanisms and properties, methodological developments are required specifically for such materials. These are based on innovative microscopic and spectroscopic techniques and simulation models.

This targeted simulation- and information-driven material development will enable the production of a next-generation biocomposite and its subsequent application in advanced manufacturing processes.