Cleaner Engineering and Technology 8 (2022) 100450

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Cleaner Engineering and Technology

journal homepage: www.sciencedirect.com/journal/cleaner-engineering-and-technology

Recent progresses in wood-plastic composites: Pre-processing treatments,

manufacturing techniques, recyclability and eco-friendly assessment
Ammar H. Elsheikh a, *, Hitesh Panchal b, S. Shanmugan c, T. Muthuramalingam d, Ahmed.
M. El-Kassas a, B. Ramesh e
a
Department of Production Engineering and Mechanical Design, Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University, Tanta, 31527, Egypt
b
Mechanical Engineering Department, Government Engineering College Patan, Gujarat, India
c
Research Centre for Solar Energy, Department of Physics, Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation, Green Fields, Guntur District, Vaddeswaram, Andhra Pradesh,
522502, India
d
Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Kattankulathur Campus, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, 603203, India
e
Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Saveetha School of Engineering, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai, 602105, Tamil Nadu, India

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Wood-plastic composites (WPCs) have shown promising domestic and industrial applications. Both virgin and
Wood plastic composite waste materials have been used as matrix and reinforcement materials in WPCs manufacturing which enhances
Material recycling the eco-efficiency of WPCs products. This study presents a comprehensive review on the WPCs manufacturing
Treatment techniques
techniques including pre-processing of the composite ingredients and post-processing of the WPCs products.
Ecofriendly manufacturing
Three main types of pre-processing techniques have been discussed; chemical, mechanical, and thermal treat­
ments. Conventional manufacturing techniques of WPCs such as extrusion molding, injection molding,
compression molding, stir casting, and hot-press method have been presented. In addition, advanced
manufacturing techniques such as selective laser sintering have been briefly discussed. The recycling of WPC is
also discussed. Eco-friendly assessment of WPCs has been also introduced. Important conclusions and the future
research trends have been mentioned in the end of the article.

carbonate are added to theses polymers during fabrication process to

enhance their mechanical properties (Zhu et al., 2014). However, the
1. Introduction
rise in the price of calcium carbonate as well as its negative environ­
mental impacts motivates the researchers to find eco-friendly alterna­
Wood–plastic composite (WPC) is a composite material made of
tives (Kamal et al., 2012). Therefore, organic fibers extracted from
plastic as a matrix and wood as filler (Gardner et al., 2015). Like other
different types of wood as well as wheat, rice, or flax straw have been
composite materials, the constituent materials are preserved in their
proposed as a good alternative to inorganic fillers (Das and Chaudhary,
original forms and are incorporated to obtain a new composite material
2021; Elsheikh et al., 2021a). The extraction of fibers should be done
with reasonable mechanical and physical properties and low cost. It is
using low-cost environmentally friendly technologies. Wood is consid­
formed in planks or beams shape which may be utilized in many ap­
ered as the master of all organic fibers due to its strong structure and
plications such as outdoor deck floors, railings, park benches, car door
high mechanical properties compared to other organic fibers (Kazemi
linens, car seat backs, fences, door and window frames, timber plate
Najafi, 2013). Moreover, the seasonality of annual crops such as rice,
structures, and indoor furniture (Haque et al., 2019b). Furthermore,
wheat, and flax is another drawback of this type of organic fibers. The
they have shown promising applications as thermal and sound insu­
seasonality of these crops increases the cost of the preparation of their
lation panels (Yang et al., 2019).
fibers due to the special consideration that should be applied during
In general, most of low-cost plastics such as polypropylene (PP), high
harvesting, drying, separating, transporting, and storing process.
density poly ethylene (HDPE), low density poly ethylene (LDPE), poly­
Another important issue in fabrication of fiber-polymer composites is
tetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), high impact polystyrene (HIPS), and poly­
the local availability of the organic fibers. Jute fibers may be the optimal
styrene (PS) are characterized as low strength materials (Babikir et al.,
choice for fiber-polymer composites in Bangladesh while rice straw
2019; Elsheikh et al., 2020). Therefore, mineral fillers such as calcium

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: ammar_elsheikh@f-eng.tanta.edu.eg (A.H. Elsheikh).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clet.2022.100450
Received 14 June 2021; Received in revised form 4 February 2022; Accepted 18 February 2022
Available online 3 March 2022
2666-7908/© 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
A.H. Elsheikh et al.
Nomenclature
ABS Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene
HDPE High density polyethylene
LDPE Low-density polyethylene
LLDPE Linear low-density polyethylene
MAPE Maleated polyethylene
PBS Polybutylene succinate
PC Polycarbonate
PE Polyethylene
PES Polyether sulfone
PET Polyethylene terephthalate
PF Phenol formaldehyde
PHBV Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate)
PLA Polylactide
PP Polypropylene
PPC Poly(propylene carbonate)
PS Polystyrene
PVC Polyvinyl chloride
UPE Unsaturated Polyester
fibers is the optimal on in Egypt (El-Kassas and Elsheikh, 2020).
In general, WPCs have many advantages compared with reinforced
plastic with mineral fillers such as low cost, low processing problems; in
addition to reasonable mechanical properties (Siddikur Rahman et al.,
2018). WPC exhibits better dimensional stability in harsh environments
compared with natural wood (Adhikary et al., 2008). Moreover, WPC
has good resistance to termite and fungi (Mankowski and Morrell,
2007). The most important issue related to WPC fabrication is its
capability to exploit wood and plastic wastes to produce a new product
with enhanced properties (Basalp et al., 2020). The main drawback of
use of organic fibers in WPC is their tendency to aggregate during pro­
cessing. In addition, their low moisture resistance results in formation of
voids which impairs the dimensional stability and mechanical properties
of the produced WPC. Moreover, the degradation of organic fibers in
harsh sunny environments affects the reliability of WPC.
The existence technologies of producing WPC are highly automated
and adaptable to various types of raw materials (Gardner et al., 2015).
The main conventional processes used in WPC manufacturing are in­
jection molding (Kuo et al., 2009), extrusion (Gacitua et al., 2010), and
compression molding (Jiang and Zeng, 2019). In addition, new
advanced additive manufacturing processes using laser sintering
(Zhang, Y. et al., 2017) and fused layer modeling (Kain et al., 2020) have
been also proposed. The raw materials of WPCs should undergo
pre-processing treatments to enhance the interfacial bonding between
the WF and the polymer matrix (Imken et al., 2020).
In this study, the recent advances in manufacturing of WPCs are
introduced. The common used plastics as matrices in WPCs are dis­
cussed. Then, the use of waste materials as alternatives to virgin mate­
rials in manufacturing WPCs is presented. The pre-processing treatments
of the WPCs ingredients including chemical, mechanical, and thermal
treatments are discussed. Conventional manufacturing techniques of
WPCs such as extrusion molding, injection molding, compression
molding, stir casting, and hot-press as well as advanced techniques such
as selective laser sintering are introduced. Then, post-processing and
eco-friendly assessment of WPCs products are discussed. Finally, con­
clusions and promising future trends are introduced.
2. Common used polymers in WPC
Various polymeric materials (thermosets, thermoplastics) have been
used in WPC fabrication (Gardner et al., 2015). The processing tem­
perature of these polymers should not exceed 200 ◦ C to protect wood
2
Cleaner Engineering and Technology 8 (2022) 100450
fibers from disintegration of cellulose chains. The polymers that fulfilled
these requirements are HDPE, LDPE, PVC, PP, PVC, ABS, and PS
(Elsheikh et al., 2021b). HDPE has a good resistance to chemicals and
therefore it used for packing detergents, acids, margarine, and milk.
LDPE is used in heat sealing applications due to its low melting point. It
is also used in cable and wire and cable applications due to its good
electrical characteristics. HDPE has high strength-to-density ratio and
high specific strength. It is harder than LDPE. HDPE has a good resis­
tance to different solvents. PP has similar properties as PE, but it has
more heat resistance and slight better mechanical properties. PVC has
excellent chemical resistance and stability, and good electrical charac­
teristics. It is widely used in fittings and pipe industry. However, PVC
produces toxic emissions under high temperatures. PP is used in packing
applications that subjected to high temperatures due to its high melting
point. It is also used in yogurt packing, medicine and ketchup bottles,
and the outer casing of car battery. ABS has excellent abrasion and
chemical resistance, excellent strength and stiffness, easy to be formed,
machined, and painted, and reasonable dimensional stability. The good
mechanical and physical properties of PS, such as low density, high
stiffness and superior thermal insulation, make it a good choice in food
and medicine packing applications. Other plastics such as PBS, PC, PES,
PET, PF, PHBV, PLA, PPC, and UPE have been used as matrix in WPCs
and showed enhanced mechanical and thermo-physical properties.
3. Recycled plastic in WPC
Recycling of plastics is a crucial environmental issue (Bernatas et al.,
2021). It can be executed using one of three main techniques: me­
chanical recycling, source reduction, or feedstock recycling. However, it
was reported that the processing of waste material is a cumbersome
problem which needs a lot of resources which impairs its profitability
(Vazquez and Barbosa, 2017). Moreover, most of manufacturers are not
interested in using waste materials as raw materials in their industries
due to the problems related to the material collecting and handling as
well as the unstable quality of the waste material (Kazemi Najafi, 2013).
Numerous experimental investigations have been carried out to
figure out the feasibility of using both of waste plastic and waste wood in
production of WPC. Sawdust of cedrela wood was used as reinforcement
to produce WPC with three different waste materials as matrices, ther­
moplastic; namely, HDPE, PET and PP as shown in Fig. 1 (Martinez
Lopez et al., 2020). All plastic wastes were washed and dried many times
to ensure adequate level of cleanness. The dried plastic was then crushed
in a mill into particles with size ranged between 3 and 7 mm. The wood
boards were made using a double screw extruder under processing
temperature of 170 ◦ C. The produced samples had a good modulus of
elasticity ranged between 2.12 and 4.03 GPa depending on the rein­
forcement content of the board.
The effect of adding demolition waste as solid filler on the me­
chanical and physical properties of PP/WF WPC was investigated by
(Hyvärinen et al., 2019). The use of this filler with high concentrations
impairs most of WPC mechanical properties such as tensile strength,
bending strength, and the hardness except the Charpy impact strength
which was significantly improved. The use of this filler decreased the
thickness swelling and water absorption of the WPC.
Recycling palm leaves waste and plastic waste were exploited to
produce eco-friendly WPC for structural application (Binhussain and
El-Tonsy, 2013). The used plastic waste contained several plastic types,
namely, PC, PS, and PVC. The PS and PVC matrix WPC had a higher
tensile strength and modulus and lower elongation compared with that
of the PC matrix WPC. The rate of linear burning of all prepared WPC
samples was lower than that of natural wood.
(Taufiq et al., 2018) investigated the feasibility of using a mixture of
recycled plastic to produce PP/PE/kenaf fiber WPC. It was reported that
the maximum modulus of elasticity and maximum flexural strength of
the produced WPC can be achieved at 60 wt% and 30 wt% of kenaf fiber,
respectively. However, there is no significant change in impact strength
A.H. Elsheikh et al.
Fig. 1. WPC from waste raw materials (Martinez Lopez et al., 2020).
with change of fiber content. The thermal analysis of the produced WPC
indicated that the crystallinity of produced mixture is decreased by
increasing the fiber loading. This problem could be solved by applying
an additional heating step which resulted in improving the crystallinity.
It was recommended to avoid the use of additives or applying further
chemical treatments to preserve the production cost at reasonable level.
In another attempt to investigate the feasibility of using a mixture of
recycled plastic in production of WPC, Turku et al. (2017) used
municipal plastic waste and construction plastic waste to produce WPC.
The waste plastic was sorted manually and only PP and PE were picked
up. The WPC ingredients were mixed using conical counter-rotating
double-screw extruder at a processing temperature of 160–180 ◦ C. The
manufacturing procedures of WPC made of a mixture of waste plastic are
shown in Fig. 2.
The feasibility of using waste of electronic and electrical equipment
in WPC industry has been investigated by (Sommerhuber et al., 2016).
PS and ABS were extracted from waste materials and used as matrices in
WPC. Maleic anhydride was used as a coupling agent to enhance the
interfacial adhesion. Linear increase of flexural and tensile strengths was
observed by increasing wood content. ABS matrix WPC exhibited good
mechanical properties without using coupling agents; however coupling
agents played an important role in enhancing the mechanical properties
of PS matrix WPC.
The use of waste materials in WPC industry is not only limited to
waste plastic or sawdust wood particles but also other waste materials
may be used as fillers or coupling agents. Waste car engine oil was used
as coupling agent in manufacturing of LDPE/sawdust WPC (Animpong
et al., 2017). The flexural strength of the produced WPC reached a high
value of 13.69 MPa which makes it suitable to outdoor fencing appli­
cations. The produced WPC was tested by thermogravimetric analyzer;
and no hazardous gases were exhaled.
The feasibility of using recycled HDPE as a matrix in WPC has been
investigated by (Sommerhuber et al., 2015). The use of recycled HDPE
as a matrix in WPC was reported as economically feasible. The existence
Fig. 2. Schematic of WPC manufacturing from a mixture of waste plastic (Turku et al., 2017).
3
Cleaner Engineering and Technology 8 (2022) 100450
of inorganic residues in recycled materials is critical issue that may
affect injection and extrusion processes. It was recommended to use low
wood content (the optimal was 30 wt%) in case of using recycled ma­
terials to obtain good mechanical properties of WPC close to that of
using virgin materials. Nanoparticles produced from the recycling of
waste printed circuit boards have been utilized as reinforcement mate­
rial during the production if WPC (Yang et al., 2020a). In another
attempt, wood has been replaced by sludge cellulose recovered from
wastewater treatment plants to fabricate WPC with HDPE as a matrix
(Zhou et al., 2019a). The produced WPC using sludge cellulose has a
reasonable mechanical properties which approach the mechanical
properties of wood powder based WPC. The tensile strength of HDPE/­
sludge cellulose WPC was 13.58 MPa which is acceptable on many en­
gineering applications such as fencing or decking. The produced
HDPE/sludge cellulose WPC is eco-efficient than HDPE/wood powder
WPC by about 5.26%.
4. Pre-processing treatments
To enhance the interfacial properties between WF and polymer and
to overcome the hydrophilic nature of WFs, pre-processing treatments
are applied to the WPC ingredients. There are three main treatment
techniques; chemical, mechanical, and thermal. Chemical treatment is
commonly used but has serious environmental impacts. Therefore, me­
chanical and thermal treatment techniques have been proposed as
environmental friendly alternatives to chemical treatment. The three
techniques will be discussed in the following subsections.
4.1. Chemical treatments
Chemical treatment techniques are widely used to enhance the
interfacial properties between polymer and wood fiber and overcome
the hydrophilic nature of wood fibers. Such treatments are used to
motivate hydroxyl groups on fiber surfaces to enhance the surface
A.H. Elsheikh et al.
characteristics of fibers. Chemical treatment utilize chemical agents
adjust the fiber properties through two main reactions; reaction with the
functional groups on polymer and reaction with the hydroxyl on fibers
surfaces. Wood fibers are usually treated with ammonia or alkali to
improve wetting properties between the fibers and polymer, produce a
flexible and tough interfacial layer, develop enhanced cross-linked
interfacial fiber surface, enhance polymer/fiber wetting, and alternate
the fibers surface energy.
Coupling agents are used to increase the interactions between
polymers and wood fibers and consequently the bonding between each
other by treating their surfaces. There are many categories of coupling
agents; surfactants, bonding agents, dispersing agents, and compatibil­
izers. There are three main methods to add coupling agents into WPC:
i. One-step process: in which coupling agents are added to polymer
and wood fiber during mixing process.
ii. Two step process: in which coupling agents are coated onto wood
fibers before mixing process.
iii. Master batching process: a part of wood fibers and polymer are
treated using coupling agents and they are stocked to be used in
further fabrication processes.
The coupling agents could be also classified into three main groups;
organic, inorganic, and hybrid agents. Hybrid coupling agents are
formed by mixing organic and inorganic agents together such as tita­
nate/silane coupling agent. The common used coupling agents that
utilized in WPC fabrication are hydroxy methyl methacrylate, glycidyl
methacrylate, anhydrides acetic anhydride, succinic anhydride, maleic
anhydride, alkyl succinic anhydride, and phthalic anhydride.
(Lin et al., 2020) treated wood fibers using tannic acid and Fe2+
solution. wood fibers were immersed in tannic acid bath for 1 h, then
fibers were subjected to vacuum (0.9 MPa) for 15 h. After that the tannic
acid/wood fibers was treated using Fe2+ solution. The final treated fi­
bers are mixed with diphenylmethane di-isocyanate using fiber mixer to
produce WPC. The produced composites had enhanced hygroscopicity
characteristics, a higher stiffness of 5115.60 MPa, and excellent
dimensional stability. The produced composites had 8.54% moisture
when subjected to 85% RH for 250 h, and had a thickness swelling of
5.8% after immersing in water for 24 h.
(Jiang et al., 2020) treated wheat straw fibers using iron oxide
pigment to enhance the corrosion resistance of the PVC/wheat straw
fibers WPC. The pigmented WPC exhibited excellent service reliability.
Treating the fibers with iron oxide resulted in a considerable improve­
ment in the hydrophobicity of the fibers due to the increase of surface
roughness of the fibers and the fiber encapsulation by pigment. The
pigment may also decrease the induced cracks between the straw fiber
and the PVC matrix, which consequently improves the mechanical
properties of the produced samples.
Octadecyl organically modified montmorillonite and/or maleic an­
hydride grafted polyethylene octene elastomer were utilized as com­
patibilizers to improve the polymer/fiber interface in LDPE/Chinese fir
waste WPC (Elamin et al., 2020). The tensile strength of the produced
WPC was enhanced by about 41.46% when a mixture of both compati­
bilizers was used to treat the wood fibers. The same maleic agent was
used on manufacturing of HDPE/pine sawdust WPC; and a considerable
enhancement in the WPC properties was obtained (Martins et al., 2017).
(Zhou et al., 2019b) used a mixture of silane and maleated coupling
agents to treat PP/WF/rubber WPC to enhance the interfacial adhesion
between the composite components. A significant interfacial adhesion
was obtained which resulted in increasing the tensile strength and the
tensile modulus of the produced composites by about 57.1% and 20.7%,
respectively. This is due to the enhanced stress transfer between the
composite ingredients resulted from the considerable reduction in voids
and microcracks at the treated PP/WF/rubber interfaces. Vinyl­
trimethoxysilane and maleic anhydride have been used as coupling
agents to improve the interfacial adhesion in HDPE/sludge cellulose
4
Cleaner Engineering and Technology 8 (2022) 100450
WPC (Zhou et al., 2019a). The coupling agents are mixed with the WPC
ingredients for 10 min to react with the processed materials. The treated
mixture is extruded from a double screw extruder to be compressed
using a hydraulic press in a compression mold equipped by electrical
heaters. The incorporation of maleic anhydride into the WPC enhanced
its flexural stress by about 13.8%. The treated WPC had higher degra­
dation temperature and lower weight loss compared with untreated
WPC which indicate the excellent thermal stability of the treated WPC.
Chlorine and phosphorus groups were used as flame retardant in UPE
matrix WPC (Gibier et al., 2020). These chemical groups succeeded to
reduce the flammability of the produced WPC. Citrus trees WFs were
treated using Aspergillus flavus enzymes to be used as reinforcement in
LDPE matrix WPCs (Youssef et al., 2019).
Olive WFs have been treated using amino-silane coupling agent and
used as reinforcement in PP matrix WPC which tested using ultrasonic
evaluation technique and conventional destructive tensile test (Bou­
hamed et al., 2020). Increasing WF content and the use amino-silane
improves the rigidity of WPC. The Young’s modulus of the WPC sam­
ples with treated WF is higher than that of pure PP and WPC with un­
treated WF by about 1.2 GPa and 0.3 GPa, respectively.
Waste wood powder produced from saw mills is chemically treated
with acrylic acid, benzyl chloride, and sodium hydroxide to be used as
reinforcement in PF matrix WPC (Ramesh et al., 2018). After three
treatment stages, the treated powder is washed using water and dried at
100 ◦ C for 24 h in an oven. The chemical treatment of WPC enhances the
mechanical properties of the produced composites in terms of impact
strength and hardness.
Calcium carbonate had been also used as a chemical additive to helps
increase the links between the wood particles and three different ther­
moplastic matrix; HDPE, PET, and PP (Martinez Lopez et al., 2020).
However, the elasticity of the produced boards was decreased by using
this additives, thermal stability of the boards was enhanced.
Metal oxides catalysts such as ZnO, MgO, Fe2O3 and CaO were used
as fast pyrolysis of PP/poplar WF WPC (Lin et al., 2018). The use of MgO,
CaO and ZnO produced different types of ketones such as cyclo­
pentanones. However, phenolic yield is increased only by using ZnO.
The synergic effect between PP and poplar WF resulted in a significant
decrease in the formation of furans, ketones, and aldehydes; however
lignin depolymerzation is significantly increased. In general, the use of
these catalysts improved the bio-oil quality and the product distribution.
The effects of zeolite catalysts on PP/poplar WF WPC have been inves­
tigated (Lin et al., 2019). The use of this kind of catalysts resulted in
formation of hydrocarbons during the pyrolysis process of WPC.
The effects of silanized silicate-based minerals on the thermophysical
and mechanical properties of HDPE/maple WF WPC have been inves­
tigated (Koohestani et al., 2017). Vinyl and amino silanes have been
used to treat the mineral filler. It was reported that, adding modified
minerals to the WPC with 1 wt% increases the ductility and decreases
the rigidity by about 25%. Amino silanes enhanced the WPC ductility
more than vinyl silanes; however amino silanes impaired the tensile
strength of the WPC. Zinc borate was used to enhance the durability of
PP/wood flour WPC (Tascioglu et al., 2018). Zinc borate succeeded to
protect the treated WPC plates from decaying activity for a long period
reached seven years. It was recommended to use high zinc borate con­
centrations (more than 2 wt%) to obtain full protection of
particleboards.
4.2. Mechanical treatments
Mechanical treatment methods could be also used to modify the
wood fibers used in WPC fabrication. The main advantage of mechanical
methods over other coupling agents treatment methods is the preserving
the chemical composition of the fibers and minimizing the use of
chemicals in fabrication process. The mechanical treatments methods
depend on changing the surface and structural properties of the wood
fibers to enhance the bonding characteristics of the fibers with the
A.H. Elsheikh et al.
polymer matrix. In a typical mechanical treatment process, several
physical processes are executed such as calendaring, stretching, thermo-
treatment, and yarn production. Other examples of mechanical treat­
ment forms are electron beam irradiation and cold plasma discharge
(Zhou et al., 2020). These kinds of treatments are considered as versatile
and easy to perform methods that may be used to improve surface
activation and oxidation. The application of electron beam irradiation or
cold plasma discharge methods in treating wood fibers changes the fiber
surface energy, produces more aldehyde and reactive groups, and cre­
ates considerable surface cross links. The main aim of mechanical
treatment of wood fibers is to enhance the adhesion characteristics be­
tween the fibers and polymer. The adhesion between two substances is
preserved under the action of the valence force or interfacial forces or
both of them. If the interfacial force between substances of a composite
material is weak, the adhesion failure takes place at the interfacial
surface between polymer and fibers. The interfacial force has two main
forms; the primary and secondary forces. Primary forces are induced
from chemical bonding ionic, covalent or metallic bonds. Secondary
forces are induced from physical attraction resulted from Van der Waal’s
bonds. Different theories have been established to explain the adhesion
on composite materials such as diffusion and adsorption theory, me­
chanical interlocking, and boundary layer theory. Diffusion and
adsorption theory involves two main mechanisms; the first is the
adsorption mechanism in which penetration and spreading take place
between polymer and fibers, and the second mechanism is the diffusion.
The molecular attractions between polymer and wood fibers have four
forms: electrostatic, covalent, metallic and van der Waal’s. Then diffu­
sion occurs which depends on penetrability of wood fibers and the
chemical compatibility between fibers and polymer. Mechanical inter­
locking occurs when melted polymer solidifies on fibers that have rough
surfaces that contain crevices, valleys, and peaks. The polymer is held
with wood fibers by mechanical anchoring. Boundary layer theory as­
sumes that a thin layer is formed on the fiber surface which responsible
for polymer/fiber adhesion. The main mechanical treatments of wood
fibers are discussed as follows:
Plasma treatment is an ecofriendly mechanical treatment technique
that used to improve the surface characteristics of wood fibers by adding
functional groups to it such as sulfonates and amine. It is also used to
clean the fibers surface from impurities, defibrillate the wood fibers, and
enhance the fiber porosity which consequently enhances mechanical
Fig. 3. SEM pictures of: beech veneer’s surface a) untreated, b) 1 kW plasma treated fibers, c) 2 kW plasma treated fibers (Peng and Zhang, 2019); Spanish Broom
fibers d) untreated e) 10 W plasma treated fibers f) 70 W plasma treated fibers (Tursi et al., 2019).
5
Cleaner Engineering and Technology 8 (2022) 100450
interlocking of polymer on the fibers surface. In addition to the envi­
ronmental benefits of plasma treatment over chemical-based tech­
niques, it consumes very little time (1–3 min) compared with that of
conventional chemical methods which require several day to obtain
reasonable fiber treatment.
The paint adhesion of paint film on wood surface was enhanced by
using plasma treatment (Peng and Zhang, 2019). The wettability and
surface roughness of the treated wood were considerably increased and
functional and active groups are generated on the surface by increasing
the discharge power. The contact angles of diiodomethane and water on
the wood surface were decreased by 58.20% and 46.15%, respectively.
Low pressure plasma treatment technique was used to obtain fluorinated
cellulose with hydrophobic characteristics (Tursi et al., 2019). The
plasma treatment of the fibers resulted in increasing the surface
roughness especially at higher discharge power. Starch foam/aspen
wood composite was treated by cold plasma treatment to enhance the
surface hydrophobicity (Han et al., 2011).
Plasma treatment converts the smooth surface of wood fibers into
surface cross linked surface as shown in Fig. 3 for beech veneer’s fibers
and Spanish Broom fibers (Peng and Zhang, 2019; Tursi et al., 2019). A
higher surface etching is observed at high plasma discharge power
which causes a higher unevenness degree of the fibers with larger and
deeper pits. The fiber surface was peeled off and filaments are created on
it. Weathering marks and dents are created on by the wood fibers.
The feasibility of using electron beam treatment of PE/WF WPCs was
investigated by (Palm et al., 2016). The hardness and ultimate strength
of the produced WPCs were enhanced by treating the WF at dose levels
of 250 and 200 kGy, respectively. No significant effect on elasticity
modulus of the produced WPC was observed.
Solid state shear milling process using pan mills was used to prepare
wheat straw fibers as shown in Fig. 4 (Yang et al., 2018). The wheat
straw was milled between rotating and stationary pans. Both of rotating
and stationary pans are divided into equal divisions; each division has
many bevels with ridges parallel with the division boundary. The design
of the pans and their operating conditions guarantee the application of
very high compressive forces and shear on the milled materials. This
method is convert the wheat straw onto micro-sized cellulose nanofibrils
(≤100 nm thickness, 200–500 nm width, and ≤6000 nm length)
(Thangaraj et al., 2021). It was reported elsewhere that pan milling
produces fibers with enhanced mechanical properties in terms of tensile
A.H. Elsheikh et al.
Fig. 4. The schematic of solid state shear milling process of wheat straw (Yang et al., 2018).
strength, flexural strength, and impact strength compared with that of
ball milling and jet milling (Yang et al., 2015). The same method has
been also applied to treat the nanoparticles produced from the recycling
of waste printed boards and to liberate lignin and hemicellulose from the
surface of the WF (Yang et al., 2020a). The rotating pan was rotated with
50 rpm at a pressure of 5 MPa; and the pans were cooled down using
circulating water with a temperature of 12 ± 2 ◦ C. Ball mill machine was
used to ground and treat sludge callouses used in HDPE/sludge callouses
WPC (Zhou et al., 2019a). Disc mill machine was used to ground flour of
scots pine and cypress wood mixed with agitated flour which used as
reinforcement in PP matrix WPC (Haque et al., 2019a). The wood flour is
subjected to a pulverization process under wet and dry conditions. After
accomplishment of pulverization process the slurry is processed in a
centrifugal machine to separate wood flour. Then the separated flour is
dehydrated using t-butyl alcohol. The dried mixture is extruded using
double screw extruder and samples were fabricated using injection
molding technique. The tensile strength of the produced WPC reached a
high value of 43 MPa thanks to the enhanced interfacial adhesion be­
tween PP and the treated wood flour.
4.3. Thermal treatment
Thermal treatment of WPC has been proved as an excellent technique
to enhance the thermophysical properties of WPC such as biodurability,
water resistance, and color stability against ultraviolet radiation (Cirule
et al., 2016). Kuka et al. (2020) used heat treated pine wood particles to
fabricate PP/pine wood particle WPC. The wood particles were treated
at constant temperature of 212 ◦ C for 3 h in a closed reactor. The
treatment process was carried out in water vapor environment under a
processing pressure of 7 ± 1 bar. Then the thermal treated particles are
mechanically treated using ball mill machine. Then the produced wood
6
Cleaner Engineering and Technology 8 (2022) 100450
particles were kept in an oven for 24 h under a drying temperature of
103 ± 2 ◦ C. Then the mixture (50 wt% PP and 50 wt% wood particles)
was extruded using double screw extruder at 180 ◦ C. The extruded
composite is processed in compression molding machine udder a pres­
sure of 3.5 MPa and a temperature of 180 ◦ C. The treated WPC had an
enhanced surface erosion characteristics as the loss in its mass was less
than 50% of that occurred in case of the untreated WPC after exposure to
water spray and ultraviolet radiation. This enhanced resistance to ul­
traviolet radiation is due to the good compatibility between the treated
particles and PP matrix.
The milled corrugated cardboard has been thermally treated using
pyrolysis technique in nitrogen environment at a high temperature of
350–450 ◦ C (Wang et al., 2019). Increasing the temperature of pyrolysis
process resulted in decreasing the length of the produced fibers due to
the increase in the attrition level of the produced fiber. The produced
fibers are used as reinforcements in high HDPE matrix and MAPE matrix
WPCs. The crystallinity of the produced WPCs is proportional with the
fiber length. In another study, the effects of the temperature of pyrolysis
process 300–600 ◦ C as well as residence time 90–150 min on the char­
acteristics of Eucalyptus wood fibers used in manufacturing of PS matrix
composite have been investigated by (Vanapalli et al., 2021).
(Kairytė et al., 2020) produced WPCs using self-thermal treatment
technique. The reinforcement was the powder of pine wood bark and the
matrix was produced by the reaction occurs between isocyanate and
rapeseed oil polyol. The produced WPC had high porosity which en­
hances its thermal insulation properties. A considerable enhancement in
the physical and mechanical properties of the produced WPC was ob­
tained by adjusting the concentration of the wood powder. The optimal
properties were obtained 0.15 wood bark powder/binding material ratio
which were 0.0706 W/(m⋅K), 357 kg/m3, 0.23 MPa, 1.2 MPa, 2.5%,
38.2 vol% for thermal conductivity, density, tensile strength, bending
A.H. Elsheikh et al.
strength, thickness swelling, and water absorption, respectively.
5. Manufacturing of wood plastic composites
In a typical wood plastic manufacturing process, resin, reinforcing
fibers and are mixed together and formed under pressure and heat to
produce a new composite material (Hietala, 2012). Resin is used as a
matrix to grasp the fibers and to transfer the applied loads to the fibers.
The reinforcing fibers are responsible for enhancing the mechanical
properties of the composite such as tensile strength and toughness. The
curing agent is used as a catalyst to accelerate the conversion of the resin
onto hard plastic. The produced WPC exhibit enhanced chemical and
physical properties such as chemical resistance, temperature resistance,
dimensional stability, light weight, and relatively high specific strength.
The resin used in WPC has two main categories; thermoplastic and
thermosetting. In manufacturing of thermoset-based WPC curing agents
are used to produce finished parts which cannot be reformed and can be
only subjected to finishing processes. The most common used thermo­
sets are epoxies, amino and phenolic resins, polyamides, and poly­
urethanes. The main difference between thermoplastics and thermosets
is the capability of the former to be reformed under heating. Reinforcing
fibers are used to enhance the strength of the composite part. The fibers
should have not any reactivity with the resin (Hand, 2018). This prop­
erty distinguishes wood fibers from other synthetic fibers such as car­
bon/graphite, glass fibers and aramid (Abu-Okail et al., 2021). Wood
fibers usually have different moisture amounts with many different
shapes such ad fine flour and large chips. This variation in moisture
content and shapes affect the flowability of the fibers and consequently
their handling during manufacturing process. Another problem related
to the handling of wood fibers is the formation of dust which requires
specific precautions during handling process. Both mechanical and
pneumatic conveyers are used to transport wood fibers during WPC
manufacturing. However, mechanical systems such as belts and screws
are commonly used compared with pneumatic ones. For polymers
transportation, pneumatic conveyers are commonly used.
Fig. 5. Common used extruders: a) single-screw extruder; b) co-kneader (2021).
7
Cleaner Engineering and Technology 8 (2022) 100450
Generally, WPC are fabricated by either extrusion or injection
molding. The common used extruders are single-screw extruder, double-
screw extruder, and co-kneader extruder as shown in Fig. 5 (2021).
A typical single-screw extruder is composed of a rotating screw and a
cylindrical barrel equipped with external heaters. The inner surface of
the barrel is coated with a hard coating to decrease wear rates and the
screw flights should be made of hard material for the same purpose. The
speed and the applied torque of the screw are controlled by a gear
reducer connected to an electric motor. The role of the gear reducer is to
decrease the speed and increase the torque. The melting process is
mainly accomplished via frictional heating inside the extruder. The
temperature of extrusion process is precisely controlled by electric
heaters and cooling channels. The double-screw extruder has two main
types; co-rotating double-screw extruder and counter-rotating double-
screw extruder.
The single screw as well as the counter-rotating double screw has
superior pressure build-up functionality which gives them advantages to
be used in profile extrusion processes. The co-rotating double screw has
the greatest flexibility and mixing functionality among other extruders
which make it the optimal choice in the compounding industry.
The melting process is executed by the heat generated from the
conversion of mechanical energy onto thermal energy via viscous
dissipation occurs in the thin film of molten polymer at the interface
area between solid material and barrel inner surface. The supreme vis­
cosity of the melt polymer (50–1000 N s m–2) is the main cause of
converting the mechanical work into thermal energy via viscous dissi­
pation. The generated heat is transferred by thermal convection and
conduction to the solid material, the barrel walls, and the melt pool.
Precision control of melting process is highly desirable as excessive
heating can cause thermal, mechanical, or oxidative, degradation of the
extruded polymer.
Selecting the optimal parameters of extrusion process has an
important role in improving the product quality and reducing the cycle
time. However, the optimization process is not straightforward process
due to the existence of multiple interacted factors related to the used
A.H. Elsheikh et al.
equipment, molding material, and product structure. Therefore, the
relation between the process factors and process responses cannot
expressed in explicit form. The effects of different process parameters on
the product quality and production time for different extrusion ma­
chines are discussed in the following subsections.
5.1. Single screw extruder
A single screw extruder has the simplest design among all other ex­
truders and generally has barrel length to diameter ratio of 34:1. The
processing of polymers inside this type of extruders undergoes two main
stages; melting and metering. The extruder is provided with a vent unit
to remove the excessive volatiles. The materials are fed onto the
extruder via a gravity hopper. The materials are melted and mixed using
the shear produced by the screw motion inside the barrel. The produced
material from this type of extruders has a pellets form. The extruder is
equipped with a dryer to dry the produced pellets. The simple design and
low foxed and operational cost of this type of extruders are the main
advantages of it over other extruders. However, it has many disadvan­
tages such as low production rate, the fiber is subjected to thermal
decomposition during melting, a dryer is required, the screw tip may be
burnt due to its high angular velocity, and preserving the melt temper­
ature at low level is a cumbersome problem especially at high lead
pressures.
5.2. Counter-rotating double-screw extrusion
This type of extruders is a well-controlled extruder as the melt
temperature could be persevered at low levels. Therefore, it is the best
choice for extruding heat sensitive materials such as PVC and hard-to-
feed materials that need degassing during extrusion process. Also, it
can be used for foams and fibers extrusion without affecting their
properties. The counter rotating double screw has two main configura­
tions; conical and parallel.
The fibers should be subjected to drying process before blending with
additives and polymers. Then the blended materials are fed onto the
extruder by a crammer feeder. The materials are melted and mixed using
heated barrel and the shear produced by the screw motion inside the
barrel. The extruder is provided by a vacuum ventilator to remove
moisture during the processing of the blended materials. The main
advantage of this type of extruders is its low screw rotational speed
screw and low induced shear produced by mixing process. However, it
has also many disadvantages such as the need to additional equipment
such as size reduction, pre-blending, and drying system, the blending
ratio of the raw materials is hard to preserve at constant value due to the
difficulties related to material transportation, the need to large space,
and the high operating costs such as labor, power, and maintenance.
5.3. Co-rotating double screw
A co-rotating double screw can be used to produce WPC lumber by
incorporation with a hot melt single screw. This type of extruders re­
quires no material preparation and fibers with average moisture of 6 ±
1% can be used. The raw materials are fed into the extruder using
double-screw side feeders or gravimetric feeders. The materials are
melted and mixed using heated barrel and the shear produced by the
screw motion inside the barrel. Moisture is removed from the using
vacuum and atmospheric vents. The main advantage of this type of
extruder is its ability to extrude wood fibers with relatively high mois­
ture content without need to use external dryers as the moisture is
removed by built-in vents. Moreover, it has good fiber/polymer mixing
capabilities compared with other extruders. However, it has also many
disadvantages such as the high rotational speed of the screw, it requires
peripheral feeding systems, and fiber may be burnt due to the lack of
screw cooling.
A co-rotating double screw was used to produce WPC samples
8
Cleaner Engineering and Technology 8 (2022) 100450
composed of PP as a matrix and wood flour as reinforcement (Hosseinaei
et al., 2012). The screw rotated at 30 rpm and the barrel temperature
ranged from 180 to 195 ◦ C. Maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene was
used as a coupling agent. The produced samples were cooled down in a
water bath and then dried in an oven for 12 h at 103 ± 2 ◦ C. A pneumatic
injection molding machine was used to fabricate the WPC samples with
a processing temperature of 135 ◦ C.
5.4. Co-kneader extruder
A co-kneader extruder is a modified version of single-screw extruder
on which pins are fixed on the barrel of the extruder (Salinier et al.,
2020). The pins wipe the whole surface of the extruder screw which
makes it a self-cleaning extruder. This cleaning process results in a sig­
nificant reduction on residence time which is a critical issue in extruding
of thermally sensitive polymers. These pins are also used to disrupt the
flow of the polymer which increases the total melting rate and decreases
the material temperature. The main advantages of co-kneader extruder
are lower energy consumption, lower melt temperatures, superior mix­
ing homogeneity, avoiding the formation of shear spikes, preserving the
fiber structure, and high production rate.
Co-kneader extruder was used to fabricate HDPE/pine wood flour
WPC at a rotating speed of 55 RPM and a mixing duration of 5 min
(Lazrak et al., 2019). The produced paste is injected into a metallic mold
which pressed under a pressure of 5 MPa and a temperature of 180 ◦ C for
14 min (8 min for hot pressing and 6 min for cold pressing). Prior to the
extrusion process, the pine wood powder was dried for 1 day at 103 ◦ C,
and then milled by a grinder to the required particle size. The HDPE
pellets were washed with water and dried for 12 h at 65 ◦ C. A homo­
geneous mixture of the HDPE and wood flour was obtained using the
co-kneader extruder. By examining the produced WPC, it was observed
that HDPE particles existed in a semicrystalline form inside the wood
cell were sufficiently bonded to the wood particles. PPC/WF WPC was
prepared using co-kneader extruder at a processing temperature of 150
◦
C using maleic anhydride as a coupling agent (Nörnberg et al., 2014).
The produced WPC had a high elastic modulus and tensile strength of
6.6 GPa and 77 MPa, respectively.
5.5. Others
Conventional methods such as compression molding were also used
to prepare WPC samples (Pratheep et al., 2020). fabricated WPC samples
composed of PVC as a matrix and coir pith and/or corn cob powder as
reinforcement additives. Hand-lay method was used to process the WPC
as shown in Fig. 6. The tensile strength as well as the impact strength of
WPC sample that contain a mixture of both reinforcement additives was
increased by more than 15% compared with the samples that contain a
single reinforcement additives. Compression molding has been also used
to prepare PP/WF/rubber WPC pellets using hydraulic press equipped
with electrical heaters (Zhou et al., 2019b). The pellets were compressed
for 10 min under a processing pressure of 9.81 MPa at 190 ◦ C.
Hot-press method was used to fabricate PF/wood powder WPC
(Ramesh et al., 2018). Wood powder was mixed with PF in a mechanical
blender. The mixture was pressed in a mold using manual press tech­
nique. Then the mold was compressed using a hydraulic press equipped
by electrical heaters at a processing pressure of 5 N/mm2 and temper­
ature of 120 ◦ C for 11 ± 1 min. The pressing temperature is less than the
melting temperature of PF by about 80 ◦ C to prevent the composite
degradation (Ge et al., 2018). used hot pressing method to produce
PP/Pinus massoniana wood flour. The processing temperature was 170
◦
C and processing pressure was 5 MPa.
Selective laser sintering is an accurate additive manufacturing
method that has been to produce WPC products which have complex
geometry a with reasonable production rate. Zhang et al. (2020) used
selective laser sintering to fabricate PES/pine wood powder WPC. The
sintering process was carried out at the following parameters: layer
A.H. Elsheikh et al. Cleaner Engineering and Technology 8 (2022) 100450

Fig. 6. Fabrication of WPC using hand-lay and compression molding methods

(Pratheep et al., 2020).

thickness was 0.1 mm, preheat temperature was 83 ◦ C, and internal

power was 13 W. To enhance the mechanical and physical properties of
WPCs produced by this method, carbon nanotube was used an additional
reinforcement. Then the produced WPC components were post-treated
in a microwave oven with a power of 385 W and frequency of 2.45
GHz. The optimal treatment time that produces the highest bending
strength of the produced samples was 10 s as the bending strength
Fig. 7. Comparison between the WPC samples produced by four different
reached a high value of 15.7 MPa.
techniques: a) tensile strength; b) modulus of elasticity and elongation (Raj
To prove the inability of stir casting technique to produce WPC, it
et al., 2020).
was compared with three other techniques injection, extrusion and
compression molding techniques to fabricate PLA matrix WPC (Raj
were enhanced using Pickering emulsions as paraffin-based anti-corro­
et al., 2020). The extrusion molded specimens had the highest tensile
sion coating (Ohijeagbon et al., 2020). The coated WPCs had higher
strength among other fabrication techniques; while stir casted speci­
hardness and water-resistance compared with non-coated ones. The
mens had the lowest tensile strength (one third of that of extrusion
coated composites had higher corrosion resistance than non-coated
molded specimens). The same trend was obtained in case of modulus of
composites. The abrasive wear was the dominated wear mechanism in
elasticity; however, stir casted specimens had the highest elongation
the produced WPC under sea water environment. The thermal stability
compared with others. These results can be depicted from Fig. 7.
of coated WPC is affected by use of paraffin on normal environment;
however, in the corrosive environment, the coated WPC showed supe­
6. Product functionalization
rior thermal stability compared with uncoated ones. Surface micro­
graphs of the produced PVC/sorghum straw fibers WPC are shown in
WPC products have a monotone color and lack natural wood texture.
Fig. 9. Before subjecting the WPC to corrosive environment, the coated
They usually do not have visual perception of natural wood which may
WPC has a homogenous structure compared with uncoated WPC. After
impair its decorative appearance and consequently limit its usage in
subjecting the WPC to corrosive environment, the uncoated WPC is
furniture manufacturing and domestic decoration (Sun et al., 2019).
completely failed and the coated WPC showed rough surface with
developed a simple technique to decorate the surface of HDPE/WF
porous structure which resulted from water-swelling.
products. The HDPE/WF surface was roughened using sanding process
Press formed HDPE/WF WPC sheets made of waste materials were
and cleaned using acetone as shown in Fig. 8. Polyvinyl acetate emulsion
thermally treated to enhance their physical properties (Matthews et al.,
was used as adhesive under low temperature (less than 90 ◦ C) to avoid
2018). The treated sheets exhibited better thermal stability and absorb
the deformation of HDPE and the discoloration of decoration material.
less amount of water compared with untreated sheets.
The surface bonding strength of the treated veneer-faced HDPE/WF
To enhance the thermal properties of WPCs to be used as interior
composites reached a high value of 0.9 MPa.
components of buildings while preserving the building temperature at
The application of microwave and infrared radiation as heating
constant temperature with minimal fluctuation, HDPE/pine sawdust
sources in thermoforming PP/WF WPC has been investigated by
WPC was incorporated with phase change material (PCM) (Jamekhor­
(Erchiqui et al., 2020). The WPC samples heated by microwave radiation
shid et al., 2017). Maleated polyethylene was used as coupling agent to
have a uniform temperature field compared with that heated by infrared
improve bonding between the wood powder and HDPE. The produced
radiation. The heating time of microwave heating depends on the
WPC with and without PCM was used as internal ceiling and walls in hut
reinforcement concentration and the sample size.
test to figure out its role in minimizing the temperature fluctuation in­
The anti-corrosion characteristics of PVC/sorghum straw fibers WPC
side the hut. The temperature distributions inside the hut with and

9
A.H. Elsheikh et al. Cleaner Engineering and Technology 8 (2022) 100450

Fig. 8. SEM pictures of surface morphology of HDPE/WF composite: a) without surface treatment; b) with sanding and abrading treatment (Sun et al., 2019).

Fig. 9. Surface micrographs of the produced PVC/sorghum straw fibers WPC: (a) non-coated and (b) coated before corrosion; (c) non-coated and (d) coated after 12
d corrosion (Ohijeagbon et al., 2020).

without PCM as well as the ambient temperature are plotted in Fig. 10.
The PCM played an important role to minimize the temperature inside
the hut as well as the temperature fluctuation. PCM/WPC was used as a
roof module to reduce the temperature of building and improve the
thermal comfort inside the building (Chang et al., 2020). The temper­
ature of the roof surface was decreased by increasing reflectivity. But, it
should be increased to a certain limit to prevent freezing problems in
winter. The application of the proposed module decreased the roof
temperature by about 7.37 ◦ C in the summer. As the volume of PCM
increased, the roof temperature decreased. It was recommended to use
PCM with a phase change temperature of 20 ◦ C and 30 ◦ C to obtain
optimal thermal performance and minimal roof temperature,
respectively.
Flame retardant is an important property of WPC to be used in do­
mestic applications. The common used materials to enhance the flame
retardant are Al(OH)3 and Mg(OH)2, which have many advantages such
as low price, abundant source, good heat stability, non-volatile, and
non-toxic. The application of biochar HDPE/WF prepared by the
extrusion method was investigated by (Zhang, Q. et al., 2017). The
mechanical properties of the WPC were improved by increasing the
biochar content to certain limit after which the mechanical properties
was impaired. Both Al(OH)3 and Mg(OH)2 resulted in a considerable
enhancement in the flame retardant properties of the WPC. The optimal
flame retardant and mechanical properties were obtained by adding Mg
(OH)2 with 40 wt% and 10 wt%, respectively.
Rotating plasma jet technique was used to modify the surface of

10
A.H. Elsheikh et al. Cleaner Engineering and Technology 8 (2022) 100450

Fig. 10. Temperature variation of ambient air and inside a hut made of WPC with and without PCM (Jamekhorshid et al., 2017).

WPCs to improve their adhesion and hydrophilicity (Yáñez-Pacios and
Martín-Martínez, 2017). The technique was applied to three WPCs with
three different matrix material; namely, PP, PE, and PVC. The treatment
applied to PP and PE succeeded to remove most of impurities from the
WPC surface and change their topography, chemistry, and surface en­
ergy. The adhesion of the tested WPCs to coatings was enhanced due to
the removal of impurities and WF from the WPC surfaces and the for­
mation of carbon-oxygen moieties.
7. Recent advances
Herein we will discuss the most relevant work published on the
manufacturing of WPC. The main process conditions and parameter as
well as the enhanced properties of the produced WPC will be high­
lighted. Solid-state shear milling technique has been used to produce
LLDPE/WF composite with excellent WF dispersion without applying
any chemical treatments to the WF (Yang et al., 2020b). The viscosity of
the blended composite (3893 N s m–2) during processing was very close
to that of LLDPE (2286 Pa s). The produced WPC has ultimate tensile
strength of 31.1 MPa which is higher than that WPC produced by con­
ventional extrusion methods by about 26.5%. The water absorption of
the produced WPC was 0.22% after full immersion for 840 h, which is
very low compared with reported data in literature. The rotating pan
was rotated at low speed of 60 rpm with average pressure of 6 ± 1 MPa
and both pans were cooled down using ethylene glycol. The produced
ultrafine WF was mixed with LLDPE powder for further milling. Then,

Fig. 11. Flexural strength of WPCs with different matrix (HDPE, LDPE, PP, PVC, and PS) (Ratanawilai and Taneerat, 2018).

11
A.H. Elsheikh et al.
the produced mixture is extruded with a double-screw extruder. The
same technique with modified processing conditions was applied to
produce sustainable polylactic acid/WF packaging material (Yang et al.,
2018), LDPE/graphite composites (Wu et al., 2013), and plastic poly­
amide (Chen et al., 2001).
The effects of plastic type (HDPE, LDPE, PP, PVC, and PS) used as a
matrix in WPC on mechanical properties were investigated by (Rata­
nawilai and Taneerat, 2018). Rubberwood flour was added to the pro­
duced WPC and acted as reinforcement filler. UV-stabilizer, maleic
anhydride, and paraffin wax were used as ultraviolet stabilizer, coupling
agent, and lubricant, respectively. PP and PS matrix WPC had better
mechanical properties compared with HDPE, LDPE, and PVC as shown
in Fig. 11. LDPE had the worst mechanical properties among all inves­
tigated plastics. The PP/WF WPCs had the maximum flexural strength of
37.72 MPa while PS/WF WPCs had the maximum flexural modulus of
3514.45 MPa. PP and PS matrix WPC exhibited better durability in
natural weather compared with other investigated plastic matrices.
Wear behavior of PVC/sorghum straw fiber WPC in acid rain and sea
water corrosion conditions has been investigated by (Jiang et al., 2017).
The obtained results showed that the worst corrosion conditions that
impaired the produced WPC the most were: sea water with a tempera­
ture of 55 ◦ C along with a salinity of 3.5% or acid rain with a temper­
ature of 55 ◦ C along with pH 2.5. LDPE/bamboo charcoal powder WPC
was investigated by (Li et al., 2014). The produced WPC displayed
higher tensile, flexural, and thermal properties. The effect of weathering
on mechanical properties and surface topography of PP/WF WPC was
investigated by (Badji et al., 2017). Yellowing of WPC occurred under
weathering due to the creation of paraquinonic structures. Then the
created paraquinones structures resulted in reducing hydroquinones
which consequently convert the color of WPC onto white.
LLDPE/WF/Cu nanoparticles composite prepared by pan milling
technique has a high tensile strength of 32.4 MPa and preserves a high
modulus of 616 MPa at storage temperature of 100 ◦ C (Yang et al.,
2020a). The water absorption of the produced WPC was 0.21% after full
immersion in water for 840 h.
The LDPE/Chinese fir WPC was processed using injection molding
(Elamin et al., 2020). The unprocessed LDPE/Chinese fir mixture is
bended before injection processing to obtain homogenous composite. A
double screw extruder and an injection molding machine were used to
prepare the WPC samples and the processing temperature was set at 160
◦
C. The mechanical properties of the produced WPC was enhanced due
to the improvement of adhesion between Chinese fir fibers and LDPE
due to the use of chemical compatibilizers.
The reliability of PVC/wheat straw WPC in terms of surface prop­
erties, composite structure, thermal stability, and structural strength
under corrosive environment has been investigated (Jiang et al., 2020).
A conical double-screw extruder was used to extrude the samples. The
temperature of the screw was kept at constant value of 160 ± 5 ◦ C, while
the rotational speed of the screw was 20 rpm. The produced samples
were tested in prepared artificial seawater composed of NaCl, Na2SO4,
MgCl2, KCl, CaCl2, KBr, NaHCO3, H3BO3, NaF and SrCl2. The wheat
straw fibers were treated using three different iron oxide pigments; red,
yellow, and blue. The produced samples with treated wheat fibers
exhibited excellent reliability compared with that of untreated wheat
fibers.
The feasibility of using PVC/WF WPC to insulate sound and minimize
the transmitted noise in building was investigated by (Yang et al., 2019).
The use of WPC panels decreased the transmitted noise by about 3 dB
compared with that of pine wood panels. An optimization investigation
has been carried out to improve the noise insulation characteristics of
the HDPE/pine sawdust WPC (Santoni et al., 2018). The sound trans­
mission loss through the WPC plate was computed using finite element
simulations.
WPCs were fabricated by impregnating hardwood and softwood by a
radiation-curing UPE resin with flame retardant additives such as
chlorine or phosphorus groups (Gibier et al., 2020). The use of the resin
12
Cleaner Engineering and Technology 8 (2022) 100450
impaired the flame retardancy; however, the addition of chlorine or
phosphorus groups resulted in decreasing the flammability of the pro­
duced WPC. Addition of phosphorus groups reduces the released smoke
during WPC burning compared with that of chlorine groups. The treated
WPC had better mechanical properties compared with that of untreated
ones; and increasing of the WF content resulted in improving the me­
chanical properties with no significant increase in the flammability.
(Vedrtnam et al., 2019) investigated the mechanical and tribological
properties of WPC composed of sheesham, babool, mahogany, or mango
wood dust as reinforcements and PP as a matrix. The mechanical
properties of WPCs such as tensile strength, impact strength, and flex­
ural rigidity are highly dependent on the wood powder type. PP/Babool
wood powder WPC had the highest tensile strength, bending strength,
and hardness among other investigated WPC. While PP/mango wood
powder WPC had the highest impact strength and wear-resistance.
Increasing the weight fraction of wood powder in WPC resulted in
decreasing the tensile strength and wear-resistance for all investigated
samples. The hardness of WPC is dramatically decreased by exposure to
ultraviolet radiation. The effects of ultraviolet radiation on the PP/pine
wood particles properties have been investigated by (Kuka et al., 2020).
PP/sawdust WPC was suggested as particleboards for house parti­
tioning applications (Ohijeagbon et al., 2020). Expanded PS and cement
were used as adhesive materials. The density and moisture content of the
produced boards varied between 490 and 630 kg/m3 and 6.04–9.09%,
respectively, depending on the ratio of the ingredients. The highest
compressive, tensile, and flexural strength for the produced boards were
3.72, 1.52, and 7.10 MPa, respectively.
The thermophysical properties of PE/poplar WF WPC containing
flake graphite as a filler were investigated by (Zhang et al., 2018). First,
the poplar WF was dried at 103 ◦ C for 24 h. PE particles is mixed with
dried WF in the presence of maleic anhydride PE as a coupling agent and
flake graphite as a filler in high-speed blender. Then the mixture was
extruded using a co-rotating double screw extruder to ensure the ho­
mogeneity of flake graphite distribution. The screw speed was set at 250
rpm and the processing temperature ranged between 160 and 175 ◦ C.
The extruded material was hot-pressed for 120 s under a pressure of 8
MPa and a temperature of 175 ± 5 ◦ C into WPC sheets. The produced
sheets were cool-pressed for 120 s. The thermal conductivity of the
produced WPCs was increased with increasing the flake graphite con­
tent. The increase in the flake graphite content had a slight effect on the
mechanical properties of the produced WPC which caused by the poor
interfacial bonding between PE and the inorganic filler.
PBS/Padauk sawdust WPC was prepared using injection molding
technique and a double screw extruder (Petchwattana et al., 2017). The
effects of sunlight exposure and water absorption on the mechanical and
thermophysical properties of the produced WPC were studied. It was
reported that water absorption of the produced WPC follows the Fick’s
diffusion law, and the increase in coefficient of diffusion is related to
increasing wood content. The maximum value of water absorption was
obtained at 30 wt% Padauk sawdust and reached a high value of 4.5%.
The maximum WPC swelling was 3% after immersion in water for 30
days.
The effects of natural weathering conditions on PHBV/WF WPC were
investigated by (Chan et al., 2019), using PE/WF and PLA/WF WPC as
reference materials. The exposure to ultraviolet radiation had a slight
effect on the mechanical properties of the produced WPC. It was rec­
ommended to use low WF content (20 wt%) to obtain WPC with stable
mechanical properties, as the mechanical properties degrades after
subjecting to natural weathering conditions for 12 months for WPC with
WF content of 50 wt%.
Modeling of the mechanical behavior of WPC is a cumbersome
problem due to the random characteristics of the reinforcement mate­
rials and the complex characteristics of interface bonding between fibers
and polymers (Hančič et al., 2012). developed an analytical model to
simulate the elasto-plastic response of WPC using two explicit
semi-analytical methods; namely, Generalised Method of Cells and
A.H. Elsheikh et al.
Mori–Tanaka Method. The theoretical results were compared with
experimental ones obtained four different matrix materials (PS and PP)
and different WF with sizes and volume fractions. Both of the proposed
models can be used to predict the WPC behavior with high accuracy. The
predicted values of the tensile strength and Young’s modulus had a good
agreement with the experimental ones.
8. Recycling of wood plastic composites
The possibility of the reuse of the waste WPC is a critical issue that
should be taken into consideration during developing of a new WPC. In
general, recycling saves materials, but it causes degradation of me­
chanical, chemical and physical properties of the recycled material
(Petchwattana et al., 2012). Therefore, many industries avoid the use of
recycled materials in high quality products (Ramírez-Vargas et al.,
2004). Though, recycling is still an important mean to utilize and
conserve waste materials. Recycling of WPC reduces the cost of raw
material and conserves environment with economic benefits. Waste
WPC may be resulted from the manufacturing process itself which called
in-house recycling or from post-consumer sources. The main advantage
of in-house recycling is its low production cost due to the reduction of
material collection and transportation.
The effect of multiple processing routes on the mechanical properties
of WPC made of PVC was investigated by (Petchwattana et al., 2012).
They found that to obtain recycled WPC with sound properties and
minimum cost it is recommended to use 30% of recycled WPC with 70%
of virgin materials. Reasonable mechanical properties were obtained
even after the use of more than five processing routes. Recycling of WPC
prepared from PVC matrix and wood flour has been investigated by
(Petchwattana et al., 2012). The molecular weights of PVC matrix has
been significantly reduced due to the chopping of molecular chain
during re-processing, however the mechanical properties have not been
significantly affected (Rosenstock Völtz et al., 2020). investigated the
effects of recycling on WPC using a co-rotating twin-screw extruder. It
was reported that the aspect ratio of the wood fiber is severely affected
by the recycling because of the shear forces generated during the mul­
tiple extrusion process. The tensile properties did not affect by recycling
passes (Bhattacharjee and Bajwa, 2018). investigated the effects of
reprocessing of HDPE/oak wood flour WPC up to six cycles using
extrusion and injection molding technique. The strain properties as well
as thermal stability of recycled WPC were better than that of fresh WPC.
The crystallinity of recycled WPC was lower than that of fresh WPC.
Up to date, the recyclability of WPC is still in its cradle. More re­
searches should be carried out to evaluate the feasibility of reusing waste
WPC as a raw material. One important restriction in WPC recycling is the
degradation of the used wood especially at high temperatures (about
200 ◦ C) at which hazardous volatiles are emitted (Shahi et al., 2012). In
addition, the polymer degradation is another critical restriction.
Reprocessing of polymeric materials induces oxidative and thermal
degradation as the internal chains are hopped off scission and molecular
weight is decreased (Beg and Pickering, 2008). Moreover, the viscous
behavior of the processed waste WPC differs from that of virgin mate­
rials which requires further chemical treatment to overcome this issue.
9. Eco-friendly assessment
In addition to the enhanced thermophysical and mechanical prop­
erties, WPCs should have excellent eco-friendly characteristics to be
used in domestic applications. Eco-efficiency is an important concept
that provides a quantitative measure of the economy and sustainability
of a product. It relates the product cost to its environmental impact. Eco-
efficiency is defined based on ISO14045 standard as a comparative
technique used to compare different systems/products to obtain the
optimal one that has the highest efficiency. Eco-efficiency can be
mathematically expressed as the ratio between the added value of the
product and its environmental impact (Zhou et al., 2019a).
13
Cleaner Engineering and Technology 8 (2022) 100450
(Keskisaari and Kärki, 2018) investigated the profitability of using
six different WPCs considering different combinations between vir­
gin/recycled fibers or polymers. The six WPCs are: virgin WF/virgin
polymer/burned construction waste, recycled carton waste/virgin
polymer, virgin WF/virgin polymer/limestone waste, virgin WF/virgin
polymer/recycled mineral wool, virgin WF/recycled polymer, and vir­
gin WF/virgin polymer. Based on the reported results, the use of recy­
cled materials has insignificant effect on the manufacturing cost, and
sometimes it has a positive effect on both of manufacturing and material
costs. It was also recommended to use recycled materials as long as the
required properties of the produced WPC are fulfilled.
Environmental impacts of downstream and upstream of WPC were
analyzed by life cycle assessment methods (Sommerhuber et al., 2017).
Recycling was reported as the most promising method for end-of-life of
WPC. WPC depends on plastics more than wood recycling; therefore
WPC recycling should be treated as plastic recycling. It was recom­
mended to increase the WF content in case of using virgin WPC in­
gredients to obtain lower environmental impacts. Considering physical
factors along with ecological factors, the increase in secondary WF
content decreases the environmental impacts. Fig. 12 shows the amount
of plastic production in the European Union which represents 20% of the
world production. About 80% of the produced plastic is used in Euro­
pean Union for the production of different plastics products made of PE,
PS, PP, PVC, HDPE, or ABS. A small amount of these products is recycled
due to the restrictions related to marketing. Very small amount is used to
produce WPC.
10. Conclusions and future scope
From the aforementioned review, it is realized that there are many
experimental investigations carried on the manufacturing of WPCs.
WPCs have shown promising industrial and domestic applications as an
eco-friendly product. This study presented an in-depth investigation on
WPCs manufacturing technologies, the pre-processing treatments,
product post-processing, and the eco-friendly assessment of WPCs.
Different types of plastics such as HDPE, LDPE, PVC, PP, PVC, ABS, PS,
PBS, PC, PES, PET, PF, PHBV, PLA, PPC, and UPE have been used as
matrix in WPCs. Both virgin and waste plastic are used to fabricate
WPCs. Wood fibers and other natural fibers such as wheat and jute fibers
are used as reinforcement materials.
Other waste materials have been also used in fabrication of WPCs
such as demolition waste which used as filler to enhance Charpy impact
strength and water absorption characteristics of WPCs; however, it im­
pairs the mechanical properties of the produced WPCs. Waste car engine
oil was used as coupling agent in manufacturing of WPCs. WPCs have
lower burning rate compared with natural wood, but it is higher than the
matrix plastic.
Pre-processing treatments are applied to the WPCs ingredients to
enhance the interfacial properties between WF and polymer and to
overcome the hydrophilic nature of WFs. The following remarks could
be concluded for the pre-processing treatments:
➢ Chemical treatment is commonly used but has serious environmental
impacts.
➢ Chemical treatment utilize chemical agents adjust the fiber proper­
ties through two main reactions; reaction with the functional groups
on polymer and reaction with the hydroxyl on fibers surfaces.
➢ Mechanical and thermal treatment techniques have been proposed as
environmental friendly alternatives to chemical treatment.
➢ The mechanical treatments methods depend on changing the surface
and structural properties of the wood fibers to enhance the bonding
characteristics of the fibers with the polymer matrix.
➢ The main advantage of mechanical methods over other chemical
treatment methods is the preserving the chemical composition of the
fibers and minimizing the use of chemicals in fabrication process.
A.H. Elsheikh et al.
Fig. 12. Data on post-consumer and production of WPC and plastics (Sommerhuber et al., 2017).
➢ Thermal treatment of WPC has been proved as an excellent technique
to enhance the thermophysical properties of WPC such as bio­
durability, water resistance, and color stability against ultraviolet
radiation.
WPC are fabricated by either extrusion or injection molding. Con­
ventional methods such as compression molding, stir casting, and hot-
press method were also used to prepare WPC samples. Selective laser
sintering as an accurate additive manufacturing method has been to
produce WPC products which have complex geometry a with reasonable
production rate. Post-processing of WPCs using sanding, microwave and
infrared radiation, and rotating plasma jet techniques have been applied
to enhance the properties of the WPCs surface such as flame retardant,
adhesion, and hydrophilicity.
The use of waste materials in WPCs manufacturing enhance the eco-
efficiency of the products. However, most of manufacturers are not
interested in using waste materials as raw materials in their industries
due to the problems related to the material collecting and handling as
well as the unstable quality of the waste material. Therefore, more
experimental investigations should be carried out on the application of
waste materials in WPCs manufacturing especially for large production
scale. Research should be also extended to investigate the use of both of
hybrid matrix materials and reinforcements. Low-cost natural fibers
such as rice straw fibers produced by environmentally friendly tech­
nologies should be also investigated. Machining of WPCs is another
important took that should receive more attention from the researchers.
Finally, the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning ap­
proaches should be applied to predict and optimize the performance of
the produced WPCs.
14
Cleaner Engineering and Technology 8 (2022) 100450
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declared that there is no conflict of interest.
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