Feasibility of using waste sweet bay wood (Laurus nobilis L.) in particleboard production

Abstract

Turkey holds a 95% market share of global sweet bay (Laurus nobilis L.) leaf trade, and it has 25 leaf processing and manufacturing facilities with different capacities. In this study, the usability of waste sweet bay wood (BW) that was removed from bay leaf processing plants was studied. For this purpose, three-layer particleboards were produced by mixing industrial chips (IC) and waste sweet bay wood chips (BWC) at a mixture rate of 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%. For panel production, urea formaldehyde adhesive (UF) was used in 10% of the surface layers and in 8% of the middle layer based on dry chip weight. Some mechanical properties, such as bending strength (BS), modulus of elasticity in bending (MOE), internal bond strength (IB) of the test panels, thickness swelling (TS), and water absorption (WA) amounts, were determined. The results showed that all panel groups except group C (25% BWC + 75% IC) met the general purpose panel class (P1) requirements for use in dry conditions according to TS EN 312 (2012). In addition, group A panels (100% BWC) met the requirements of P2 class for the MOE and BS, and group E panels (75% BWC + 25% IC) met the P3 standards. The results showed that BWC could be used to produce particleboard for general purposes, including furniture.