Recycled Wood Plastic Composites as Floor Panels for Ship Containers

Sotirios Grammatikos,Orsa Boura,Styliani Papatzani,Harald Bertin Jøsendal,Mohammad Hajmohammadian Baghban

doi:10.1088/1757-899x/842/1/012006

Abstract

Within the framework of this study, we aim at the replacement of plywood as ship containers floor material, with a lighter and friendlier-to-rainforests composite material. Wood fibre-reinforced thermoPlastic Composites (WPC) were developed using double-screw extrusion, consisting of recycled waste wood fibres reinforcing recycled High Density PolyEthylene (HDPE) matrix. This shift to WPCs has the dual positive effect of containers freight reduction as well as elimination of the use of natural resources, radically contributing to climate change measures. Following international shipping standards for container flooring, high quality recycled WCPs were developed. HDPE was found to provide acceptable structural performance. To that respect, WPC blends of HDPE matrix reinforced with 30%, 40% and 50%wt wood fibre flour, were fabricated and subjected to 3 point-bending mechanical testing. It was found that the studied WPCs reveal mechanical performance adequate to qualify as replacements of plywood timber flooring in ship containers.

Highlights

The increasing demand for greener transportation imposes the need for new environmental-friendly engineering materials to reduce carbon footprint and Green-House Emissions (GHE) [1, 2]
Wood fibre-reinforced thermoPlastic Composites (WPC) blends of High Density PolyEthylene (HDPE) matrix reinforced with 30%, 40% and 50%wt wood fibre flour, were fabricated and subjected to 3 point-bending mechanical testing
It was found that the studied WPCs reveal mechanical performance adequate to qualify as replacements of plywood timber flooring in ship containers

Summary

Introduction

The increasing demand for greener transportation imposes the need for new environmental-friendly engineering materials to reduce carbon footprint and Green-House Emissions (GHE) [1, 2]. It becomes apparent, that a holistic solution to preserve plywood and at the same time promote recycling is of primary importance. We aim at the development of Wood fibrereinforced thermoPlastic Composites (WPC) as replacement of plywood as floor material of ship containers. WPC is a lighter and friendlier to the precious rainforests material replacement This shift to WPCs as container floors has the dual positive effect of significantly reducing the freight of containers as well as eliminating the use of natural resources. This radically contributes to the environmental cost and paves the way towards circular economy. It was found that the studied WPCs reveal acceptable mechanical properties and can qualify as candidate replacements of plywood timber flooring in ship containers

Experimental procedure

Results and discussion

Conclusions