Sawdust waste could become fire-safe interiors with a composite that can be recycled
Every time a tree trunk is sawn, it creates sawdust. Millions of tons of sawdust are produced every year worldwide, with most of it being burned to generate energy. This releases the carbon dioxide stored in the wood back into the atmosphere, which is not ideal from an environmental perspective. Now, a team of researchers at the Chair of Wood Materials Science at ETH Zurich and Empa has developed a process that can convert sawdust into a recyclable and environmentally friendly composite using the mineral struvite, a crystalline, colorless ammonium magnesium phosphate. This, in turn, keeps the sawdust in the material cycle for longer. The work is published in the journal Chem Circularity. Struvite has long been known for its fascinating fire protection properties. Previously, however, it had proven difficult to combine the mineral with sawdust particles due to its crystallization behavior.
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