To develop a lower-cost, excellent-performance, and environmentally friendly phenol–formaldehyde (PF) resin, soybean meal was used to modify PF resin, and soybean meal–phenol–formaldehyde (SMPF) resins were prepared. This reveals the effect of soybean meal on the structural, bonding, and curing properties of PF resin, which are very important for its applications in the wood industry. The resins’ physicochemical properties and curing performance were investigated, showing that SMPF resins have higher curing temperatures than PF resin. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy results indicated that a cross-linking reaction occurred between the amino groups of soybean protein and the hydroxymethyl phenol. Moreover, with the addition of soybean meal, the viscosity of SMPF increased while the gel time decreased. It is worth mentioning that SMPF-2 resin has favorable viscosity, short gel time, low curing temperature (135.78 °C), and high water resistance and bonding strength (1.01 MPa). Finally, all the plywoods bonded with SMPF resins have good water resistance and bonding strength, which could meet the standard (GB/T 17657-2013, type I) for plywood. The optimized SMPF resins showed the potential for application to partially replace PF resin in the wood industry.

Fast pyrolysis is envisioned as a promising technology for the utilization of forestry wood waste (e.g., widely available from tree logging) as resources. In this study, the potential of an innovative approach was explored to convert forestry wood waste of Vernicia fordii (VF) into energy products based on fast pyrolysis combined with nano-catalysts. The results from fast pyrolysis using three types of nano-catalysts showed that the distribution and composition of the pyrolytic product were affected greatly by the type of nano-catalyst employed. The use of nano-Fe2O3 and nano-NiO resulted in yields of light hydrocarbons (alkanes and olefins) as 38.7% and 33.2%, respectively. Compared to the VF sample, the use of VF-NiO and VF-Fe2O3 led to significant increases in the formation of alkanes (e.g., from 14% to 26% and 31%, respectively). In addition, the use of nano-NiO and nano-Fe2O3 catalysts was found to promote the formation of acid, aromatics, and phenols that can be used as chemical feedstocks. The NiO catalyst affected the bio-oil composition by promoting lignin decomposition for the formation of aromatics and phenolics, which were increased from 9.52% to 14.40% and from 1.65% to 4.02%, respectively. Accordingly, the combined use of nano-catalysts and fast pyrolysis can be a promising technique for bio-energy applications to allow efficient recovery of fuel products from forestry wood waste.

Inherent drawbacks (e.g., loose structures, dimensional instabilities, and poor mechanical performances) restrict the applications of fast-growing wood species. In this study, a thermal compression treatment was carried out to densify acetylated spruce wood. The aim of acetylation was to improve the plasticity and water resistance of spruce wood. The water absorption, set-recovery, surface hardness, modulus of rupture, modulus of elasticity, and microstructure of the resulting wood were analyzed. The results show that acetylation can improve the plasticity of wood and reduce the interaction between wood and water, significantly reducing the set recovery of the compressed wood. When the water immersion time reaches 168 h, the water absorption rate of wood is reduced by 37% after acetylation, and the densification can further reduce the water absorption (55% for AD-40 and 70% for AD-60). The hardness of the densified wood is significantly higher than that of control wood and increases with the increase of the compression ratio. The cell wall of acetylated wood is thicker than that of control wood, which could increase the compression density of the wood. As a result, the hardness and MOR of acetylated densified wood are remarkably higher than that of unacetylated densified wood. However, a high compression ratio (60%) could lead to structural damage and, thus, reduce the mechanical properties.

To develop a lower-cost, excellent performance, and environmentally friendly phe-nol-formaldehyde (PF) resin, soybean meal was used to modify PF resin, and soybean meal-phenol-formaldehyde (SMPF) resins were prepared. Their physicochemical properties and curing performance were investigated, showing that SMPF resins have higher curing tempera-tures than PF resin. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) results indicated that the cross-linking reaction occurred between the amino groups of soybean protein and the hy-droxymethyl phenol. Moreover, with the addition of soybean meal, the viscosity of SMPF in-creased while the gel time decreased. It is worth mentioning that SMPF-2 resin has favorable viscosity, short gel time, low curing temperature (135.78 °C), and high water resistance and bonding strength (1.01 MPa). Finally, all the plywoods bonded with SMPF resins have good water resistance and bonding strength, which could meet the Standard (GB/T 17657-2013, type I) for plywood. The optimized SMPF resins showed the potential application to replace part of PF resin in the wood industry.