Guest Editors
Petar Antov, Professor, Doctor, University of Forestry, Bulgaria
Petar Antov is a Professor, PhD at the University of Forestry, based in Sofia, Bulgaria. His main research interests are in the field of wood technology, wood-based composites, biobased wood adhesives, formaldehyde emission, formaldehyde scavengers, eco-friendly wood-based composites, occupational safety, and health at work in wood industry enterprises, ergonomics and ergonomic design of furniture products. Dr. Antov has been involved in various national and international research and educational projects in the field of the wood industry, forestry, and education. He also acts as a reviewer in various world-renowned scientific journals in the field of wood science and technology. Dr. Antov has been a Guest Editor of several Special Issues in different scientific journals. Dr. Antov has been appointed as an Editorial Board member of several SCI journals, as well as a Programme Committee member of several national and international scientific conferences.
Jakub Kawalerczyk, Researcher, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Poland
Dr. Jakub Kawalerczyk is a researcher and a University lecturer focused on the field of wood technology at Poznań University of Life Sciences based in Poland. His scientific interests include lignocellulosic composites manufacturing, adhesives modification, application of nanotechnology in wood sciences, the use of bio-based formaldehyde scavengers and structural wooden beam production. Dr. Jakub Kawalerczyk is the author of almost 40 peer-reviewed scientific articles, a book chapter, and numerous presentations at international conferences. He has been involved in many national projects related to the forestry and wood technology. Moreover, he also has experience being a guest editor of a special issue of a scientific journal and a reviewer in many prestigious journals.
Muhammad Adly Rahandi Lubis, Doctor, National Research and Innovation Agency, Indonesia
Dr. Lubis received his BSc in Forestry from IPB University (Bogor, Indonesia) in 2011 and integrated master/doctoral, PhD in wood science and technology from Kyungpook National University (Daegu, South Korea) in 2019. He has been a junior researcher in Research Center for Biomaterials, National Research and Innovation Agency of Indonesia since 2014. Dr. Lubis' research interest includes wood adhesives, wood adhesion, thermosetting resins, and polymer composites. He was awarded $ 12.000 as the winner of “The ASEAN-Republic of Korea for Excellence in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI)” from the South Korean Government, in 2021 for his outstanding international publications (37 articles), patents (7 documents), and license (1 products) with H-index Scopus of 12. In addition, He is the Best Researcher in Research Center for Biomaterials, National Research and Innovation Agency of Indonesia in 2021. He has been involved in $ 150.000 worth of research grants (8 projects) since 2020. He is Guest Editor and an active reviewer in several reputable journals.
Lee Seng Hua, Doctor, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia
Dr. Lee earned his PhD in Wood Science and Technology at Faculty of Foretsry, Universiti Putra Malaysia. Following graduation, He continued his academic career as a post-doctoral researcher at Faculty of Forestry, Universiti Putra Malaysia for 3.5 years. He is currently employed as a research fellow at the Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products, Universiti Putra Malaysia. He served as reviewers for a number of reputable journals such as Cellulose, European Journal of Wood and Wood Products, Industrial Crops and Products, Construction and Building Materials etc. In 2021, he was awarded Publication Award by Forest research Institute Malaysia. In the same year, he was awarded Outstanding Reviewer 2021 by Journal of Renewable Materials (JRM). Dr. Lee is guest editor for several SCI journals. Dr. Lee is actively involved in various national and international researches in the field of the wood industry and forestry.
Summary
Traditional wood-based composites are manufactured with synthetic, formaldehyde-based adhesives, commonly made from unsustainable petroleum-derived constituents, such as urea, phenol, melamine, etc. Along with their numerous advantages, the application of these thermosetting adhesives is associated with certain problems, connected with the emission of hazardous volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including free formaldehyde emission from the finished wood-based panels, which is related to serious environmental problems and adverse human-health effects, including genotoxicity and cancer. The ongoing transition of the wood-based composite industry to low-carbon, circular bioeconomy, the increased public environmental awareness, and the new stringent legislation related to the emission of harmful VOCs, including formaldehyde, from wood-based composites, have posed challenges to academia and manufacturers, related to the development of sustainable, eco-friendly wood composites with enhanced properties, use of ultra-low formaldehyde emission and high-performance bio-based wood adhesives, addition of formaldehyde scavengers to conventional adhesive systems, optimization of the available lignocellulosic feedstocks, and use of alternative raw materials.
This Special Issue on “Advances in Eco-friendly Wood-Based Composites: Design, Manufacturing, Properties and Applications” is aimed at collecting high-quality original research and review articles on topics including (but not limited to) the latest approaches in the development of eco-friendly wood-based composites; novel bio-based wood adhesives; approaches to reduce formaldehyde emission from wood composites; binderless wood composites; wood plastic composites (WPC); advanced processes for recycling wood-based composites; thermal and chemical technologies for enhanced protection of wood and wood composites; application of nanomaterials to wood composites; valorization of bark for value-added chemicals and production of wood composites; non-wood lignocellulosic composites; advanced functionalities and application of wood-based composites.
We strongly encourage contributions from researchers and experts from all related fields in the form of original research works or review articles.
Keywords
eco-friendly wood-based composites; biocomposites; biopolymer composites; bio-based wood adhesives; advanced formaldehyde-based wood adhesives; binderless wood composites; lignocellulosic composites; reinforced composite structures; wood plastic composites; formaldehyde emission; formaldehyde scavengers; wood modification; nanotechnology and nanomaterials in wood-based composites
Published Papers