Seaweed Bioadhesives for Engineered Wood Materials

The rising concerns over the environmental impact of petroleum-based materials underscore the need for renewable, sustainable alternatives. Engineered wood products, widely employed in panels/particleboards for construction and packaging, offer significant benefits such as renewable feedstocks, lightweight, and load-bearing capabilities. Despite these advantages, many such products, including medium density fiberboards (MDF), depend heavily on adhesives derived from petroleum-based substances, like formaldehyde. These adhesives not only pose health risks due to formaldehyde emissions during their lifecycle but also contribute to environmental harm through energy intensive manufacturing. In order to address these issues, it is crucial to explore sustainable alternatives to conventional bonding agents.
In this study, we explore the potential of seaweed-derived biopolymers to serve as adhesives and examine specifically their effectiveness in bonding with wood particles, enabling the production of fully biobased engineered wood composites. The use of seaweed as a natural adhesive offers several key advantages, including renewable sourcing, carbon sequestration, and environmentally friendly disposal. As a proof of concept, we focus on Ulva expansa (Ulva) and investigate its use in fabricating engineered wood composites with various combinations of waste wood particles and Ulva. Our findings include an analysis of the composites’ structural, bonding, and mechanical properties. As the Ulva content increases, the flexural strength of the composites improves, alongside enhanced properties like water resistance and fire retardancy. We conduct Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) to explore the bonding interactions at the molecular level. Additionally, we show that these Ulva-bonded wood panels are compatible with standard machining techniques such as drilling and laser cutting. Lastly, we evaluate the environmental footprint of these biobased wood composites, demonstrating their potential as a sustainable alternative in the wood products industry.