TG-FTIR kinetic study of the thermal cleaning of wood laminated flooring waste

The enhancement of wood waste is a promising solution for the production of energy from renewable resources. Nevertheless, wood waste often needs a preliminary treatment step to remove pollutants present in the material. The thermal cleaning of wood laminated flooring (WLF) waste is studied through thermogravimetric and FTIR analyses. As a first step, it has been shown, through non iso-thermal tests, that degradation temperature ranges for wood and additives (aminoplast resins) are different, making it possible to proceed to a thermal cleaning through a low temperature pyrolysis. It has also been highlighted that chemical linkages between the different components of WLF waste influence their own thermal behaviour making it difficult to predict the thermal behaviour of the whole material. Fourier transform infra-red spectrometry analyses reveal that NH3 and HNCO are the main nitrogen-containing gases produced during pyrolysis, which highlights the pyrolysis efficiency in terms of nitrogen (i.e., resin) removing. Lastly, thermal degradation of wood and WLF has been modelled to provide information for reactor designing.