Wood Waste-Based Composites

Dear Colleagues, 

The global demand for wood-based materials is projected to increase threefold between 2010 and 2050. In addition, using wood more efficiently to meet projected demands for development of wood-based composites is a key circular economy principle. The growing environmental concerns and recent legislative regulations, related to promoting the ‘cascading use’ of wood, i.e., prioritizing value-added non-fuel applications of wood resources, have posed new challenges to both industry and academia, related to the optimization of the available wood and lignocellulosic raw materials, recycling and reusing wood and wood-based composites, and search for alternative resources. 

Wood waste-based composites are CO₂-neutral, renewable, biodegradable, and considered to be environmentally friendly. Wood waste-based composites should be defined as the material of the future thanks to the increased environmental awareness, scientific and technological possibilities and advances. Indeed, their increasing rational and sustainable use is obvious and inexhaustible. 

This Special Issue “Wood Waste-Based Composites” is aimed at collecting high-quality original research and review articles on topics including (but not limited to) the latest approaches in wood waste utilization; development of wood waste-based composites; advanced recycling of post-consumer solid wood and wood-based composites; cascading use of wood; life cycle assessment of wood composites; wood polymer composites; valorisation of bark for value-added chemicals and production of wood composites; biodegradable eco-friendly wood waste-based composites; application of nanomaterials to wood composites; non-wood lignocellulosic composites; advanced functionalities and application of wood-waste based composites. Uses of wood waste-based composites can be in furniture, structural or non-structural construction, and other environmentally-friendly products which can be used to guide the future choices of industry and society towards a more sustainable economy. 

We strongly encourage contributions from researchers and experts from all related fields in the form of original research works or review articles. 

With kind regards,
Prof. Dr. Roman Réh
Prof. Dr. Petar Antov
Dr. Ľuboš Krišťák
Dr. Muhammad Adly Rahandi Lubis
Dr. Seng Hua Lee
Guest Editors

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