EcoReFibre Project Enters Final Phase

In April 2025, partners in the EcoReFibre research project met at Dieffenbacher headquarters in Germany to review progress and plan the next steps toward developing processes for recycling end-of-life fiberboards and using recycled wood fibers to produce new fiberboards. The project was launched in May 2022 and is scheduled to end in May 2026.

During the meeting, the company presented the two key steps of its Fiber2Fiber preparation process. Project partners then saw demonstrations of the company’s process for using steam to extract fibers from post-consumer fiberboard chips and its system for cleaning recycled fibers of impurities. At last year’s EcoReFibre meeting, the company demonstrated its dry process for fiberboard recycling.

“With a throughput of more than 1,200 kg/h, our Fiber2Fiber process has exceeded the ambitious process target of 500 kg/h,” Michael Rupp, who leads Dieffenbacher’s Recycling Business Unit, was quoted. “This makes us optimistic that the EcoReFibre project will achieve its goals next year, giving an enormous boost to fiberboard recycling on an industrial scale.”

Funded by the European Union, the EcoReFibre (“Ecological solutions for recovery of secondary materials from post-consumer fiberboards”) research project includes 20 organizations from seven countries.

dieffenbacher.com/recycling/ecorefibre, ecorefibre.eu

(Published in GLOBAL RECYCLING Magazine 2/2025, Page 23, Photo: Dieffenbacher)