Pretreatment of pine and poplar particleboards with Pleurotus ostreatus (Jacq.) P. Kumm: wood structure decomposition, potential of solid fuel and biogas production

Abstract The study evaluated the effects of biological pretreatment on comminuted pine and poplar shavings and particleboards with urea-formaldehyde resin (UF), utilising Pleurotus ostreatus. The pretreatment notably reduced lignin content by 6.8–8.3%, enhancing the biomass's mechanical and agglomeration properties, thus confirming the initial hypotheses. Values for the specific compaction work of treated biomass were higher than those of raw biomass (24.03 kJ·kg–1 vs. 21.70 kJ·kg–1), correlating with the production of denser pastilles (1014 kg·m–3 vs. 959 kg·m–3). After pretreatment, enhanced structural properties of the biomass facilitated increased methane yields, showing up to a 3.7-fold increase for pine and 2.9-fold for poplar UF particleboards. This research advances the potential for developing recycling and biogas technologies, offering novel insights into UF degradation via fungal pretreatment. The findings underscore the necessity for further detailed studies to analyse changes in resin content post-pretreatment and their impact on the properties of wood materials.