Wood based panel products: technology road map

Despite substitution of wood by several other materials like plastics, steel, aluminium etc., wood is still regarded as one of the most versatile raw materials especially in the construction/building sectors. The consumption of industrial wood has risen over the last decade in every region of the world. Also there is a positive correlation between consumption of industrial wood and national income. It has been estimated that the present demand for industrial wood in India is 54 million cubic meters, while the availability is estimated as 30 million cubic meters. To meet the growing need of demand and supply, R&D support is very much needed to provide the acceleration to assure the growth and prosperity of wood and wood based panel industry in future. Wood based panel products industry needs innovative technology solutions that can transform the way traditional wood-derived products are made and enable significant improvements in environmental footprint, manufacturing efficiency and productivity. There are five categories of driving forces which have made impact on the wood and engineered wood product technologies viz., raw material supply, manufacturing costs, product attributes and performance and environment friendly innovative products. Development of formaldehyde and volatile organic compound emission free binder for panel products, formulation of product standards at par with international standards, enhancement of service life of products by treatment with eco friendly preservatives, development of bio adhesives, and fire resistant panel products are some of the priority research areas that need to be investigated. In India, grain and other seeds are the main products of the farming activity and there is great interest in developing uses for residues that are currently burned or ploughed back into the ground. India alone produces more than 400 million tones of agricultural waste annually. Evolving technologies for the substitution of wood by using these non-wood renewable fibers from agro residues and bamboo are another important research area which needs to be worked out to meet the growing demand of panel products. In today's highly sensitive environment, both products and the process have to confirm to certain environmental standards and therefore studies like life cycle analysis, carbon footprints and energy auditing on all next generation engineered wood products need to be investigated. The purpose of carrying out forestry/forest products research today should be to generate benefit for the people by the application of new knowledge generated so far in the field of natural resource management. There is a need for user friendly and problem solving thrust in the field of research, education and extension.