On May 20, 2026, the sponsoring association of the Dresden Institute of Wood Technology selected Marco Mäbert, Martin Hielscher, Martin Direske, and Prof. Dr. Detlef Krug from a pool of high quality proposals to receive the TIHD Research Award for their project “Use of Recycled Wood as an Alternative Raw Material for MDF Production.”
The wood-based panel industry is under increasing pressure due to declining availability of virgin wood and rising raw material costs. While waste wood is already successfully used in particleboard production, it has hardly been utilized in MDF manufacturing so far. The reasons are impurities in the wood waste streams as well as low moisture content, which negatively affects fiber quality during the defibration process.
The goal of the research project was to develop a process for producing high-quality fibers from wood waste chips in a pilot-scale MDF process with industrial-scale representative equipment. To this end, technologies were developed for impurity removal, optimization of chip geometry, and adaptation of the defibration system. The focus was on improving steam penetration of the wood chips in the digester and, associated with this, increasing the moisture content of the wood chips as well as optimizing fiber discharge from the refiner.
During the course of the project, technologies for processing german wood waste Category A I were first developed. This was followed by the adaptation of wood chip production in the drum chipper and the modification of key sections of the defibration plant. In addition, reference technologies for MDF production and coating were established on a laboratory scale. Extensive test series examined the influence of wood waste content, process parameters, and plant configuration on fiber and board quality.
The results show that MDF can be produced using wood waste without any loss of quality compared to MDF made from virgin wood. However, this requires targeted process adjustments and consistent quality control. The project thus makes an important contribution to resource-efficient and sustainable wood-based panel production.
In the EU project EcoReFibre, the IHD further developed the continuous wood chip evacuation to increase the moisture content of wood chips of wood waste in connection with the subsequent defibration into the mTMP (Moisture Modifying Thermo Mechanical Pulp) process.
Christiane Hartwig-Gerth, former Chair of the Board of Trustees and Chair of the jury, cited the technology’s retrofit potential—which allows for integration into existing systems without extensive modifications—as one reason for awarding the prize. She cited the relevance of the topic, as evidenced by the industry’s strong interest, as another reason.
All nominated projects were worthy of an award, making the jury’s selection of the winner very difficult. Due to the close decision between two projects, the jury therefore awarded a recognition award. The recognition award went to Natalie Rangno (IHD), Marc Lincke and Nico Domurath (Fraunhofer IKTS), Falko Windisch and Detlef Schmidt (LAV), and Markus Münzer (ReiPiko) for their project “Development of peat-free covering media for button mushrooms and other cultivated mushrooms (MykoDeck).”
We congratulate all the winners!