Search is on for eco-friendly binder

A team of engineers at the University of Aberdeen has been awarded a £181,000 research grant to develop technology which could revolutionise Scotland's forest products industry.

The aim of the two-year project, financed by Scottish Enterprise's Proof of Concept Fund, is to devise an environmentally-friendly binder for wood particles and wood chips.

Currently wood products are bonded together using an adhesive mixed with the wood and formed under heat and pressure.

However, the prices of bonding mix have risen sharply – and one of its components, formaldehyde, is a known carcinogen.

Professor Fred Glasser, professor in chemistry at the University of Aberdeen, said: "If the forest industry is to survive and prosper, a new and non-toxic bonding system has to be rapidly developed.

"We have been experimenting with an alternative bonding system using technology very similar to that currently in use and only minor changes in processing are envisaged.

"The industry would reap huge benefits from this new system which would offer better fire resistance, a decrease in nasty chemicals, and water resistance. There would also be a marked reduction in 'creep', the term used to describe the sagging of chipboard with the weight of heavy items."