Eco-Sustainable Wood Waste Panels for Building Applications: Influence of Different Species and Assembling Techniques on Thermal, Acoustic, and Environmental Performance

Multiple high quality wood waste from a window manufacturer is identified and collected. Eco-sustainable panels, with promising acoustic and thermal insulating performance, were then fabricated. The available wood is of different tree species (pine, oak, and mahogany) and size (pieces of wood, mixed coarse chips, and mixed fine chips). Moreover, scraps of olive tree pruning from local areas were collected for reuse. The aim of the research is to assembly panels (300 × 300 mm²) both with different techniques (hand-made and hot-pressed) and type of adhesive (vinyl and flour glues) and to evaluate their thermal, acoustic, and environmental performance. All the panels present thermal and acoustic performance comparable with the similar ones available in the literature or with commercial solutions. The thermal conductivity varies in the 0.071 to 0.084 W/mK range at an average temperature of 10 °C, depending on the tree species, the assembly technique, and regardless of the type of adhesive used. Oak wood panels are characterized by both better sound absorption (α peak value of 0.9, similar to pine pressed sample with flour glue) and insulation (transmission loss up to 11 dB at 1700 Hz) properties. However, their added value is the low environmental impact assessed through life cycle analysis in compliance with ISO 14040, especially for panels assembled with natural glue.

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