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Do Novel Wooden Composites Provide an Environmentally Favorable Alternative for Panel-type Furniture? Sidan Li, a,b Yuan Yuan, c Jinman Wang, a and Minghui Guo a, * The environmental performance was assessed for a wardrobe made from hybrid modified ammonium lignosulfonate/wood fiber composites (HWC). The HWC wardrobe system involved four subsystems, namely the raw materials supply, energy consumption, wardrobe manufacturing, and transportation. A comparative life cycle assessment of a wardrobe built from conventional medium-density fiberboard with three primary damage categories was also performed. The results suggested that the HWC composites were a more sustainable material compared with conventional boards. The raw materials supply and energy consumption influenced the three primary damage categories. Climate change on human health, particulate matter formation, fossil depletion, and human toxicity had a dominant contribution to the overall environmental impact. Also, a sensitivity analysis was performed with a focus on using wood waste as a raw material and on the different conditions for the modification of lignosulfonate for manufacturing HWC. The results indicated that the use of wood waste and an appropriate amount of unmodified lignosulfonate as a binder aids in efficient HWC production for wardrobes. These results can help to improve HWC wardrobe technology and in choosing the appropriate wardrobe system. Keywords: Wooden furniture; HMAL/WF composites (HWC); Medium-density fiberboard (MDF); Life cycle assessment (LCA); Sustainability Contact information: a: Key Lab of Bio-based Material Science and Technology of Ministry of Education, Material Science and Engineering College, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China; b: Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University, Daqing 163319, China; c: Heilongjiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology and Recycling of Argo-Waste in Cold Region, College of Life Science and Technology, Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University, Daqing 163319, China; * Corresponding author: gmh1964@126.com INTRODUCTION The world is facing challenges from social, environmental, and economic areas. Furniture products are household necessities that are used in the daily lives of people. Currently, this industry accounts for a considerable portion of global trade (Azizi et al. 2016). In 2015, the world furniture market was worth 455 billion US dollars, while the volume of export trade reached 52.8 billion US dollars. Furniture products have become promising and one of the leading export merchandises in China (Wang et al. 2016). Sustainable development of this industry is a major concern in developed and developing countries (González-García et al. 2011), especially in China, which has resulted in strict rules concerning the impact of products. The development of new urban markets in China has enhanced the domestic demands in furniture industries. The furniture market is increasing the awareness of their environmental pollution and energy consumption. Hence, environmental and economic concerns are stimulating research into green techniques, such
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Li et al . (2019 ). “Wardrobe case study in China,” B io R esources 14(2), 2740-2758.
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