THE WOOD-BASED PANEL INDUSTRY GENERATES A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF SOLID RESIDUES IN ITS PRODUCTION ACTIVITIES, INCLUDING MEDIUM-DENSITY FIBERBOARD (MDF) MOLDING MANUFACTURING. THESE RESIDUES CONSIST OF FINE FIBERS MEASURING BETWEEN 0.15 MM AND 1.19 MM IN LENGTH. A LARGE PROPORTION OF THEM CURRENTLY NEEDS TO BE UTILIZED, MAINLY DUE TO THE PROBLEM OF EXCESSIVE ACCUMULATION. THEY CAN BE REUSED AS RAW MATERIAL FOR MANUFACTURING NEW PRODUCTS BY ADOPTING A CIRCULAR ECONOMY APPROACH. THEIR THERMAL PROPERTIES CAN ALSO BE ENHANCED BY IMPREGNATING THEM WITH PHASE CHANGE MATERIALS (PCMS). THIS RESEARCH AIMS TO DEVELOP A PROCESS FOR IMPREGNATING MDF PANEL RESIDUES (R) WITH PCMS TO OBTAIN SHAPE-STABILIZED COMPOUNDS CAPABLE OF STORING THERMAL ENERGY. THREE DIFFERENT COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE PCMS WERE USED. THEY WERE INCORPORATED IN THE MDF RESIDUES BY VACUUM IMPREGNATION. THE MORPHOLOGY, CHEMICAL STRUCTURE, THERMAL STABILITY, AND PHASE CHANGE PROPERTIES OF THE COMPOUNDS OBTAINED WERE STUDIED BY SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY (SEM), FOURIER-TRANSFORM INFRARED (FTIR) SPECTROMETRY, THERMOGRAVIMETRIC ANALYSIS (TGA), AND DIFFERENTIAL SCANNING CALORIMETRY (DSC), RESPECTIVELY. THE SEM IMAGES INDICATED THE PCM FILLED THE EMPTY SPACES IN THE POROUS SURFACE OF THE RESIDUE FIBERS TO FORM SHAPE-STABILIZED COMPOUNDS. THE FTIR SPECTROMETRY RESULTS INDICATED THE COMPOUNDS STILL EXHIBITED CHARACTERISTIC PEAKS CORRESPONDING TO BOTH THE MDF RESIDUES AND THE PCMS. NO CHEMICAL REACTION WAS OBSERVED BETWEEN THE TWO COMPONENTS. MOREOVER, ACCORDING TO THE TGA RESULTS, THE COMPOUNDS PRODUCED EXHIBIT HIGH THERMAL STABILITY. THE R+PCM1 COMPOUND HAD THE HIGHEST LATENT HEAT CAPACITY OF ALL THE COMPOUNDS DEVELOPED IN THIS STUDY, REACHING A MAXIMUM OF 57.8 J?G?1, AND A PHASE CHANGE TEMPERATURE COMPARABLE TO THAT OF PCM1. THIS BETTER THERMAL PERFORMANCE COULD BE ATTRIBUTED TO THE COMPOUNDS HAVING A HIGHER ENCAPSULATION RATIO (31.4%) THAN THE OTHER COMPOUNDS DEVELOPED. FURTHERMORE, THE R+PCM1 COMPOUND HAD AN ABSORPTI

THE WOOD-BASED PANEL INDUSTRY IS EXPERIENCING AN EXCESSIVE ACCUMULATION OF SOLID RESIDUES FROM THE PRODUCTION OF MEDIUM-DENSITY FIBERBOARD (MDF) PANELS AND MOLDINGS. IT IS POSSIBLE TO CREATE NEW MDF PRODUCTS WITH ACCEPTABLE PHYSICAL AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES BY REVALUING MDF RESIDUES. ADDITIONALLY, THOSE PRODUCTS? THERMAL PROPERTIES CAN BE IMPROVED BY INCORPORATING PHASE CHANGE MATERIALS (PCMS). THIS STUDY AIMS TO DEVELOP A WOOD-BASED FIBERBOARD MADE OF MDF RESIDUES, CAPABLE OF STORING THERMAL ENERGY. TWO TYPES OF PCMS (LIQUID AND MICROENCAPSULATED), TWO PCM RATIOS (2% AND 6%), AND TWO TYPES OF ADHESIVES (UREA-FORMALDEHYDE AND PHENOL-FORMALDEHYDE) WERE USED TO PRODUCE EIGHT DIFFERENT TYPES OF PANELS. THE VERTICAL DENSITY PROFILE, THICKNESS SWELLING, WATER ABSORPTION, INTERNAL BOND (IB), AND STATIC BENDING PROPERTIES?MODULUS OF ELASTICITY (MOE) AND MODULUS OF RUPTURE (MOR)?WERE DETERMINED FOR EACH PANEL TYPE. THE SPECIFIC HEAT OF THE PANELS WAS ALSO DETERMINED. THE RESULTS SHOW THE PANELS? DENSITIES WERE GREATER THAN 700 KG/M3. THICKNESS SWELLING IN WATER IMPROVED BY 23% COMPARED TO THE REFERENCE VALUE OF THE CONTROL PANEL PCMS AFTER PCM INCORPORATION. THE HIGHEST IB VALUE WAS 1.30 MPA, WHICH IS ALMOST THREE TIMES THE MINIMUM REQUIRED BY REGULATION STANDARDS. THE INCORPORATION OF PCMS REDUCED THE PANELS? BENDING PROPERTIES COMPARED TO THE PROPERTIES OF THE CONTROL PANELS. EVEN THOUGH THE VALUES OBTAINED ARE SUFFICIENT TO COMPLY WITH THE MINIMUM VALUES SET OUT IN ANSI STANDARD A208.2 WITH AN MOE VALUE OF 2072.4