THE FREEZE-THAW RESISTANCE AND LEACHING OF IMPREGNATED WOOD WASTE-CEMENT COMPOSITES.

The recycling of wood waste still offers a wide variety of opportunities. The possibilities for wood recycling depend mainly on the substances contained in wood waste; in particular, the recycling of impregnated wood waste, which contains environmentally harmful substances, is strictly regulated. Cement matrix composites could offer new potentials for the utilization of wood-waste fractions. The product safety of wood–cement composites, in terms of leaching and freeze-thaw resistance using de-icing salts, was investigated in this study. In a leaching test, low amounts of copper, chromium, and arsenic leached from a wood–cement composite were observed. The measured concentrations of the studied substances decreased over time. Freeze-thaw resistance of wood–cement composites was studied with four different additives typically used in concrete products. The highest resistance was obtained for the composite without any additives, but, in general, all the studied specimen, with one exception, performed relatively well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]