MRQ Network – 20 minutes of science with Qilan Fu (FPInnovations)!
What better way to end a summer Thursday than with a 20 minute science presentation from the MRQ network? This time, it’s Qilan Fu’s turn to take the microphone!
Qilan is a former student of the MRQ. She did her Ph.D. under the supervision of Alain Cloutier on the physical, chemical and mechanical behavior of wood following compression under the effect of heat and humidity. She then worked for two years at FPInnovations as a post-doctoral researcher. Her work focused on the recycling of particleboard and MDF panels bound with urea formaldehyde resin. Currently, she is a researcher at FPInnovations in the Advanced Wood Materials group which is part of the Sustainable Construction Centre of Expertise.
When “composite panels” rhymes with sustainable development
The large global production of wood composite panels creates an equal amount of waste at the end of their service life. With the growing demand for green products and new government environmental policies, there is an urgent need to develop technologies to recycle these used composite panels into valuable raw materials.
The main objective of this research is to develop effective methods to recycle wood composite panels such as particleboard, MDF and OSB. Recycled particles/fibers were used as raw materials with fresh particles/fibers to make new particleboard or MDF. The performance of the resulting particleboard/MDF was evaluated by their main mechanical properties and formaldehyde emissions. Her work demonstrated that using 100% recycled particles in a new particleboard can maintain the original mechanical performance of the board.
Curious to know more?
Log in on Thursday, July 8, at 4:00 p.m. at the following link: https://ulaval.zoom.us/j/65905638045…
Password: 671303
Meeting ID: 659 0563 8045
FPInnovations is a not-for-profit applied research center that specializes in creating solutions to support the global competitiveness of the Canadian forest sector.
