The University of Bordeaux and I2M announce the official launch of the Eco-Engineering of Wood (E2WP) Chair, whose ambition is to respond to the challenges facing the wood industry by combining research and knowledge deployment within the economic fabric of the industry and the region. The chair brings together academics, professionals forestry and forest products professionals, the Xylofutur cluster, the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, and more.
By pooling funding sources (sponsorship, collaborations, services, subsidies), the aim of this chair is to create, in the spirit of a Living Lab, an open and collective innovation laboratory serving companies and the wood industry. In particular, the chair aims to provide scientific and technologically support the development of new engineering models with in terms of resource availability and energy transition.
Better deconstruction for better reconstruction
The production of timber for sustainable use is strategic for both public and private stakeholders. Deconstructing and recycling trees to rebuild the materials needed by various users is the first step in wood processing and takes different forms depending on the forest areas and the intended secondary processing. The chair is interested in developing manufacturing methods and models capable of recycling trees to rebuild the necessary materials with a positive carbon impact.
The project is divided into four areas of research related to various issues in the wood industry:
- expand current knowledge regarding resources in the field of terms of availability and quality,
- develop a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool highlighting the impact of each basic operation in the manufacturing process,
- create a genuine design tool for glued solid wood (finger-jointed, laminated) from sawn and peeled wood, go beyond traditional designs for wood components and embrace new material manufacturing concepts by integrating the concepts biomimicry or additive manufacturing processes, in order to achieve manufacture of bio-based products made from solid or rotated wood, recycled materials, competitive and low-carbon products.
"This chair strengthens initiatives with stakeholders in the wood and wood processing value chain. Its presence in Nouvelle Aquitaine, Burgundy, and Grand Est makes it a key player in France's main forest regions," Nicolas Perry, lecturer and researcher at the Arts et Métiers campus Arts et Métiers Bordeaux-Talence
The co-funding partners of the E2WP Chair
- The companies in the consortium: Beynel, Labadie, Labrousse, Lesbats, TecsaBois;
- Corporate sponsors via the Bordeaux University Foundation: Alliance Forêt Bois, Cap Exo, Dubourdieu 1800, Everad Adhesive, Zuo Paris;
- The New Aquitaine Regional Council
The research structures involved:
- University laboratories: I2M, ISM, IMS, LCTS, LCPO, etc.
- Higher Education and Research Institutions: University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux INP, CNRS, Arts et Métiers
- The XYLOFUTUR competitiveness cluster
