Grapevine waste in sustainable hybrid particleboard production

Grapevine prunings are an ideal sustainable additive to wood-based composites, providing a powerful resource stream, reducing the demand of logging of forests. Valorisation of grapevine prunings into commercial products further reduces greenhouse gas emissions caused by waste vegetation break-down. Particleboard is a ubiquitous wood-based composite with over 97 million m³ produced annually from soft wood. Agricultural crop waste is ideal for incorporation into particleboard, however maintaining the density and mechanical properties with these additives is imperative. Herein, mixed grapevine/pine cores comprising of 100%, 25% and 10% grapevine particles were produced and the mechanical and density properties of 16 mm thick moisture resistant particleboards were evaluated. Hybrid particleboards based on 10% grapevine and 90% pine showed great promise, surpassing global industry standards for key mechanical properties. Hybrid particleboards displayed a higher surface density and a steeper vertical density gradient than the 100% pine control boards, due to grapevine particles filling voids between the pine, thereby improving the mechanical properties. This work forms a foundation for the continued study of agricultural waste into wood-based composites.