Results Circular Wood 4.0: reusing residual wood from the hospitality industry

Stimulating the circular economy

How to create a smart factory for the production of valuable applications from residual wood for the hospitality industry, powered by computational design and robotic production? That question was central to Circular Wood 4.0, a study that is more relevant than ever. The demand for wood in our country is logically increasing, even though only 10 percent of our territory consists of forests. “Only 5 percent of the wood we need here in the Netherlands comes from our own soil. We have to import the rest," said Malé-Alemany.

That while reusing residual wood is also a possibility. “No less than 62 percent of the residual wood in our country ends up in the incinerator,” Malé-Alemany explained in her lecture. “The rest is processed into chipboard, a low-quality application. It is too labor intensive to process large quantities of wood of different sizes and types. However, computational design and (robotic) production do make reuse a profitable option.” An option, moreover, that fits within the Netherlands' ambition to move toward a circular economy.

Reusing wood from the hospitality sector

In Circular Wood 4.0, researchers from the AUAS’ Digital Production Research Group (DPRG) worked intensively with companies in the hospitality industry, the wood sector, and Smart Industry. Knowledge institutes TNO, HMC and Bouwlab R&Do also participated in the project. “Hospitality such as hotels and restaurants replace their interior quite often. There is therefore a lot of sustainable gain to be achieved here by using residual wood," Malé-Alemany explained. “The hospitality industry is also a large sector in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. We aim to make a positive impact on our way to a circular economy.”

Designing stools and wall panels

Circular Wood 4.0 builds on previous work by the DPRG, where a reception desk was made for the Johan Cruijff Arena, from residual wood from Amsterdamse Fijnhout. “In the Circular Wood 4.0 project, we investigated how a smart 'upcycle wood factory' can convert wood waste streams into valuable applications,” said Malé-Alemany. The development of a digital workflow and a digital twin of the factory supported innovation, as it allowed the team to simulate and calculate the business case and the environmental impact of resulting products.

The researchers built a database of types and sources of residual wood, refined digital design tools and created various designs and prototypes, including several variants of stools inspired by a design by Piet Hein Eek, and wall panels in different shapes and patterns. In addition, students designed prototypes from discarded wood from Stayokay. Outcomes included a chess table with 3D-printed chess pieces, and a lighting fixture constructed from small wooden elements.

Opportunities for the future

“The environmental impact of these applications turned out to be low, but the production costs were still too high for a profitable business case,” researcher Tony Schoen emphasized in his presentation. Nevertheless, he sees opportunities for the future: “With scaling up, smart use of available materials and reduction of transport kilometers, costs can be reduced by at least 50 percent.”

Malé-Alemany looks back on the project with great enthusiasm. “It was a good challenge and very inspiring to work on state-of-the-art technology with so many different parties,” she says. Setting up a smart factory was more complicated than expected. “But these developments are crucial for future work at the Robot Lab, and also for the future opportunities of students who participated in the project. They learned that as experienced researchers we do not always have all the answers ready immediately, neither does practice, so we need to work hand in hand together.”

Strong network of partners

Two years turned out to be too short to complete all the case studies that Malé-Alemany had in mind at the start of the project. “But we have built a strong network of partners who would like to continue working on this together.”

One of the partners is Siemens, which supplied software and supported building the factory digital twin. “At Siemens we not only market the most sustainable products possible, we also help our customers to make their products sustainable,” says Pieter Dejonghe, strategic manager for Siemens software in the Benelux. During the project he discovered that there are many sides to circularity. Dejonghe was captivated by the enthusiasm of the young researchers in the project. “They are building up knowledge in a new field and that is very valuable. I look forward to the sequel.”

Opportunities of circular materials

Ellen Wolse, interior architect at the Heineken Interieur Groep, is also enthusiastic about the collaboration. “At Heineken we inspire our customers in the hospitality industry to choose sustainable and circular. Entrepreneurs are not always aware of what is possible.” Wolse herself has also gained new insights thanks to the collaboration with the AUAS. “The research challenged us to dive even deeper into the possibilities of circular materials. And often more is possible than initially expected.”

Like Dejonghe, Wolse also likes to continue working with the projects partners. “As a follow up of the project, we want to do a pilot application in our next hospitality project in Leeuwarden. It will be a large interior wall for a restaurant, made with the panels that were designed and prototyped in this research.”

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