With health concerns about the use of commercial wood product adhesive, development of alternative solutions from renewable materials has been on the rise. One of such materials is seaweed. Seaweed- or macroalgae-based adhesives are becoming increasingly popular for bioproducts development. However, there has been no widespread exploitation of this type of adhesive in wood products due to the overall non-optimal performance of the finished product. Therefore, its utilization has been limited to packaging, textiles and biomedical applications. In this study, we have tried to develop and modify this adhesive for use in particleboard production. The seaweed used was brown alga (Ascophyllum nodosum) collected from the narrow sea inlet in Nordland County, Norway. Our aim was to increase the value of this timeless material by developing a product that offers durability, environmental and health benefits.
To prepare the adhesive, the collected algae was oven-dried and initially milled. Thereafter, we mixed the algae at different ratios with 3wt.% medium cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) designated as Cebina® F50. The wet mixture was air-dried, then milled and sieved through 0.5 mm slice. The powdered material was dissolved in warm water and the solution was modified with calcium lignosulfonate and hexamine. The resulting mixture was sprayed on wood particles. Single layer particleboard was produced via a constant thickness programme. We tested the finished product for durability and mechanical properties. Preliminary results showed that some formulations of CNF-reinforced and modified algae adhesive met certain minimum requirements for particleboard production. Therefore, we conclude that using seaweed as a biobased adhesive component has the potential to not only address toxic emission issues, but also provide a platform for structural adhesive development.
Keywords: brown algae, formaldehyde-free, lignosulfonate, particleboards, wood adhesive
Authors
Stephen O. Amiandamhen
Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Norway
Ralf Rautenberger
Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Norway
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