The utilization of light weight boards for reducing air emissions by the German wood industry – a perspective?

摘要

Background Resource saving product development is one competitive advantage for companies. Forestbased industries try to realize this amongst others with lightweight board solutions. Using lightweight boards is discussed in the wood industry for several years and could be technically realized nowadays on an industrial scale. Advantages by using lightweight boards are expected in costs due to reduced wood requirements as well as in respect to logistics. In discussion are potential environmental advantages of an enhanced use of lightweight boards. The objective of the paper is to identify and quantify the environmental impacts due to an increased use of lightweight boards in the furniture industry. The focus rests on the so-called Kyoto greenhouse gas emissions, NMVOC and formaldehyde. Results The study grounds on a process-based material flow model, which depicts the use of forest resources in Germany. The situation in 2005 is compared with a scenario, which describes a partial substitution of conventional boards by lightweight boards using sandwich design. Overall the greenhouse gas emissions will decrease, even though the overall decline is rather small. Conclusions By this lightweight boards could be a perspective for the German wood-industry to reduce emissions into air noteworthy. The main causes are a reduced requirement for adhesives and binders, logistics and thermal use of residuals.