Wood waste recycling in Sweden – Industrial, environmental, social, and economic challenges and benefits

Sammanfattning

The disposal of wood waste at facilities for incineration in Sweden is the only applied management practice today. Energy production from biomass has gained attention for its potential to recover energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, besides being a valuable source for energy generation, wood waste can be effectively recycled into new products. Specifically, recycling wood waste into particleboard is the widely practiced method in Europe, while its benefits have not been explored in the country so far. The objective of this study is to assess the environmental, social, and economic sustainability of producing particleboard and generating energy from wood waste in Sweden. This research investigates four alternative systems for wood waste disposal. The first system involves the production of heat, the second system involves heat and power by wood waste, while the third and the fourth systems, in addition to energy recovery, include partial recycling of wood waste in particleboard production. A life cycle sustainability assessment covering all three pillars (environment, social, and economic) of sustainability was conducted to compare these systems. The results show that adding recycling schemes to incineration in wood waste management practices strengthens the sustainability for all three aspects, and hence, these management methods can be considered as complementary methods rather than competing methods. When all sustainability categories are considered, alternative three (heat recovery and recycling) comes forward as the best option in 11 out of 16 impact categories.

Nyckelord

environmental assessment; social impacts; economic analysis; waste-to-energy; wood waste recycling; particleboard

Publicerad i

Sustainability
2024, volym: 16, nummer: 14, artikelnummer: 5933

SLU författare

• Van Blokland, Joran

  • Institutionen för skogens biomaterial och teknologi, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

• Wedajo, Desalegn Yadeta

  • Institutionen för skogens biomaterial och teknologi, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

• Adamopoulos, Stergios

  • Institutionen för skogens biomaterial och teknologi, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

UKÄ forskningsämne

Tvärvetenskapliga studier
Miljövetenskap
Trävetenskap

Publikationens identifierare

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su16145933

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/131192