Abstract
Grapevine prunings are an ideal sustainable additive to wood-based composites, providing a powerful resource stream, reducing the demand of logging of forests. Valorisation of grapevine prunings into commercial products further reduces greenhouse gas emissions caused by waste vegetation break-down. Particleboard is a ubiquitous wood-based composite with over 97 million m3 produced annually from soft wood. Agricultural crop waste is ideal for incorporation into particleboard, however maintaining the density and mechanical properties with these additives is imperative. Herein, mixed grapevine/pine cores comprising of 100%, 25% and 10% grapevine particles were produced and the mechanical and density properties of 16 mm thick moisture resistant particleboards were evaluated. Hybrid particleboards based on 10% grapevine and 90% pine showed great promise, surpassing global industry standards for key mechanical properties. Hybrid particleboards displayed a higher surface density and a steeper vertical density gradient than the 100% pine control boards, due to grapevine particles filling voids between the pine, thereby improving the mechanical properties. This work forms a foundation for the continued study of agricultural waste into wood-based composites.
Published Version
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