Development of Bark-based Environmental-friendly Composite Panels

Due to increasing shortage of wood supply and higher environmental concerns with the depletion of forest resources, in recent years, there is a strong interest in using forest and agricultural residues for development of value added products. Bark is a mill-waste residue, available in plenty, having limited uses and causing disposal problems. Bark possesses a large amount of phenolic compounds, which can act as an adhesive in making panels, however only limited research has been done in this area. The main objective of this project is to develop bark-based environment-friendly panels with and without synthetic resins, using mountain pine beetle infested lodgepole pine barks. Analysis of bark constituents, barkboard development, mechanical properties evaluation, characterization and improvement tests were performed. Various results support the possibility of bark utilization for barkboards production; however, more research is required for further improvements and feasible commercial production process.MAS