LEIFPROD project

This is a partnership comprising Sundeala Ltd, Building Research Establishment Ltd and AeroThermal Group to the Technology Strategy Board-funded LEIFPROD project (Low Environmental Impact Fibreboard Products).

The project, which started in May 2014 and will be completed in October 2015, will develop new wet-pressed fibreboard products to meet the requirements of a large segment of the UK board market, whilst incorporating waste and by-product material, which include end-of-life construction fibreboards and cellulose fibre derived from autoclaved municipal solid waste. The products will be based around a ‘closed loop’ board manufacturing process.

Board products are used in high volumes in the UK (e.g. as floor protection, sheathing and screening through to furniture). Existing board products are largely imported into the UK and are manufactured from wood fibre, often with the inclusion of synthetic adhesive binders. Difficulties in recovery, recycling and combustion mean that most waste board product ends up in landfill after a single use. 

The LEIFPROD project will build on a manufacturing process for fibreboard products from recycled and by-product materials to address design, commercial and materials’ processing barriers to the recycling of fibreboard products at end of (multiple) product lives.

The project will develop innovative commercial models (e.g. leasing) enabling the recycling/reuse of products at scale. It will also develop design approaches to enable incorporation of cellulose fibres from low quality sources such as treated municipal solid waste, enabling them to be incorporated into the board manufacturing process.   

For more information about the project, please contact the consortium’s project manager, Dr Andrew Dunster, Building Technology Group, BRE, by emailing dunstera@bre.co.uk or phoning 0333 321 88 11