Forests are an important resource for the production of wood for construction industry. Commonly wood is stripped from bark and an estimated 23 million metric tons of tree bark is available as a sidestream (Thorenz et al. 2018). However, currently most of it is combusted for energy. In living trees, bark protects the trees from mechanical wear and microbial degradation. In this work we aimed to utilise the inherent protective nature of bark by extracting its polyphenols and using the extract as an impregnation solution for wood protection. By replacing harmful fossil-derived chemicals with biobased alternatives for wood protection, the recyclability of construction material can potentially be increased.
Keywords: bark, polyphenols, tannins, lignin, impregnation, wood protection
Authors
Miriam Kellock
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, Finland
Lauri Tuominen
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, Finland
Petri Widsten
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, Finland
Andreas Treu
NIBIO, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Norway
Marc Borrega
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, Finland
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