Circular economy in wood construction – Additive manufacturing of fully recyclable walls made from renewables: Proof of concept and preliminary data

WoodRise 2022

“…Keywords: fi re, heat transfer, fl ame spread, evacuation, timber To counteract the low material effi ciency, low productivity and comparatively high volumes of non-renewable resources used within the construction industry, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (Universität für Bodenkultur Wien, short BOKU) developed a new strategy for additive manufacturing (3D printing) of fully recyclable walls called 3DP Biowall, as presented in Figure 1 (Kromoser et al, 2022). As the construction sector counts to the most energy and natural resource consuming sectors and wood construction shows great potential when looking for possible ways to push forward a more sustainable building mentality, 3DP Biowalls is a step in the right direction towards a more resource friendly construction environment.…”

“…To show that the presented concepts are possible selected preliminary tests (DVS measurements, compressive strength testing, fl exural strength testing, microscopic investigations, single fl ame source test) in combination with a Life Cycle Assessment -LCA (cradle-to-gate) were conducted (Hellmayr et al, 2022;Kromoser et al, 2022). The data derived from investigations prove the competitiveness of the material mix in regard to an application for wall elements and the potential of the closed material loop approach.…”

Analiza življenjskega cikla in priložnosti za zmanjševanje vplivov lesne industrije na okolje

“…Izvedene so bile analize občutljivosti (Duan et al, 2022) za izolacije, osnovne materiale, uporabo fenol-formaldehidne smole, razdaljo transporta, vrsto uporabljene energije, energijsko učinkovitost, prehajanje zraka, uporabo recikliranih materialov, upravljanje z ostanki biomase, življenjsko dobo, učinkovitost toplotne črpalke in še posebej za delež ponovno uporabljenega lesa. Kot najbolj vplivni in ključni za nadaljnjo raziskovanje njihovih alternativnih možnosti so se izkazali: izolacija (Bucklin et al, 2022;Duan et al, 2022;Füchsl et al, 2022;Galimshina et al, 2022), vrsta uporabljenih lesnih kompozitov (Andersen et al, 2022;Bucklin et al, 2022;Cascione et al, 2022;Duan et al, 2022;Kromoser et al, 2022), transport materiala za gradnjo (Duan et al, 2022), vrsta uporabljene energije (Duan et al, 2022;Saadatian et al, 2022;Tushar et al, 2022) in vrsta oken (Duan et al, 2022;Saadatian et al, 2022;Tushar et al, 2022), kjer so še posebej opazne prednosti uporabe lesenih oken v primerjavi s PVC, aluminijastimi oziroma kompozitnimi (les-aluminij) sistemi oken. Pomembno vplivajo tudi ostali dejavniki, kot sta razmerje velikosti oken glede na steno in orientacija oken v objektu.…”

A screw extrusion-based system for additive manufacturing of wood: Sodium silicate thermoset composites

“…Specifically, its limited recyclability and the fact that it requires significant non-renewable raw materials or non-renewable primary energy. 36 As previously mentioned, replacing concrete with natural materials in construction applications could provide significant environmental benefits. Examples of wood being used as the primary material in additive manufacturing specifically for construction are scarce, however, some studies show promise for using wood as a filler for thermoplastic.…”

“…Ghanbari-Ghazijahani et al 40 evaluated the feasibility of printing composite sandwich beam elements with honeycomb cores made from timber and PLA to compare the flexural capacity of conventional beams used in the construction industry. Kromoser et al 36 combined starch, lignosulfonate, and wood particles into a granulate to 3D print a ''Biowall'' with variable thicknesses with either a solid or hollow wall structure and performed mechanical, sorption, and fire resistance tests.…”