ECO WOOD

MOHD HAFIZZ WONDI, MUHAMMAD YUSRI BIN ZULKERNAIN, TUAN

NORHASLINDA BINTI TUAN MAN
Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering,
Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

ABSTRACT
Nowadays, we are challenging a hard environmental problem. Thus, our company introduced
Eco Wood as a product that can sustained our forest to conserve our environment from global
warming. Eco Woods are processed lumber or timber made out of recycled plastic and wood
wastes. It is a non-pollution material that replaces the application of real wood. They are
tough, stable and can be extruded to high dimensional tolerances. The Eco Wood materials
are high technology products for the most demanding applications. We are choosing Taman
Perindustrian Bukit Serdang as our location for the Eco Wood Factory. This is because the
plant location has to be locating in the rural area based on the analysis and must not far than
10 km within the radius of the center of the town.

INTRODUCTION
Eco Wood are produced by mixing wood
flour and plastics to produce a material
that can be processed just like a plastic but
has the best features of wood and plastics.
The wood can be from sawdust and scrap
wood products. This means that no
additional wood resources are depleted in
Eco Woods. Waste products that currently
cost money for disposal are now a valuable
resource. Recycling can be both profitable
and ethical. The plastic can be from
recycled plastic bags and recycled battery
case materials although in demanding
applications new plastics materials are
used. The recycling ethos is to use
materials recovered from short life cycle
applications in long life cycle applications.
It has good mechanical properties, high
dimensional stability and can be used to
produce complex shapes. They are tough,
stable and can be extruded to high

dimensional tolerances. The Eco Wood

materials are high technology products for
the most demanding applications.
Table 1 : Characteristics of Eco Wood Products
General
Lumber

Classification

WPC

Plastic

WATER-PROOF
AND ANTIHUMIDITY

DIMENSINAL
STABILITY

MOTHPROOF

DURABILITY

IMPACT
RESISTANCE

MAINTENANCE

NO HARMFUL
MATERIALS

SLIP RESISTANCE

WEATHERABILITY

PROCESSING
EASINESS

FEEL AND COLOR

OF LUMBERS

/
/

Eco Woods can produce the final shape

through extrusion processing. This can
maximises resource efficiency and gives
design flexibility for improved fastening,
stiffening, reinforcements, finishing and
joining. Eco Woods are wood products
that need no further processing. Eco
Woods are weather, water and mould
resistant for outdoor applications where
untreated timber products are unsuitable.
Eco woods are plastic products with
exceptional environmental credential and
performance. It had a wide range of
applications. They can cost effectively
replace wood products in applications such
as furniture, doorframes, decorative
profiles, in fact anywhere wood shapes are
used. They can cost-effectively replace
plastic products in application such as
window frames, cable trunking, roofline
products and cladding, in fact anywhere
that plastics shapes are used.

Properties Materials
Eco Woods are true composite materials
and have properties of both materials.
They have stiffness and strength between
those for plastic or wood, but the density is
generally higher than either. The properties
of Eco Woods come directly from their
structure: they are intimate mixes of wood
particles and plastic. The plastic
effectively coats / encases the wood
particle as a thin layer. The high moisture
resistance of Eco Woods (water absorption
of 0.7% compared to 17.2% for pine) is a
direct result of this structure. Water can
only be absorbed into the exposed sections
of wood and is not transmitted across the
plastic boundaries. The result is that Eco
Woods are extremely water resistant, have
little thickness swell in water and do not
suffer from fungal or insect attack1. WPCs
have:

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
1. Description of the product
The production of Eco Woods typically
uses a fine wood waste (such as hardwood,
softwood, plywood, peanut hulls, bamboo,
straw, etc.) mixed with various plastics
(PP, PE, PVC). The powder is extruded to
a pellet like consistency and then extruded
to the desired shape. Additives such as
colorants, coupling agents, stabilizers,
blowing agents, reinforcing agents,
foaming agents, and lubricants help tailor
the plastic end product to the target area of
application. With up to 70% cellulose
content, Eco Woods behave like wood
using conventional woodworking tools. At
the same time, they are extremely
moisture-resistant. There is little or no
water present, thus increasing resistance to
rot.

Good stiffness and impact

resistance
Dimensional stability
Resistance to rot
Excellent thermal properties
Very low moisture absorption

Figure 1 : The wood particles are completely coated

with plastic.

Uses of Eco Wood

Eco Woods can be used for railings,
fences, landscaping timbers, cladding and
siding, park benches, moulding and trim,
decking and boardwalks, window and
door frames, and indoor furniture. Eco
Wood is more environmentally friendly
and requires less maintenance than the
alternatives of solid wood treated with
preservatives or solid wood of rot-resistant
species. These materials can be moulded
with or without simulated wood grain
details.

calibration tooling means that tooling

manufacture lead times are short (6 to 8
weeks from design to production). A
standard simple water bath is used for
cooling and the haul-off also uses standard
parts. After haul-off, the engineered net
shape is complete and ready for use. Low
processing temperatures (less than 150 C)
give high processing rates, low energy
consumption and improved safety around
the extruders.

Waste Woods

Waste Plastics

Crushed

Crushed

Defibrated

Processed into
fibre

2. Manufacturing Process
Eco Woods are made using a variety of
raw materials. The basic wood and plastic
mix must be modified with process and
property additives to improve processing
or the final properties of the Eco Woods.
The general technique is to use a
compatibiliser or coupling agent to
improve the blending of the two materials.
A typical compatibiliser is MAAP2, which
is used to treat the basic wood and plastic
mix to improve then processing and
mechanical strength of the final product.
The basic wood product is a fine sawdust
in the 40 to 60-mesh range and this is dry
blended with the various plastics and
modifiers. The mix is extruded to a doughlike consistency through a simple die with
none of the calibration problems of
conventional extrusion.

Stirred/ Mixed
together with
Additive (MAAP)

Granulation

Extrude and Mould

by heat and
pressure

Cut

Finished Product

Figure 2: Process Flow Chart.

The flow properties and thermal

characteristics of the Eco Woods blend
means that simple dies can be used, even
for the most complex profile. The die
design and construction and the lack of
2

Maleted Polydefins

3. Selection
Equipment

of

Machinery

and

The machine selected also ease of use and

fully automated. We chose a long-term
payment to reduce the burden of the
company. The machine spare parts also
ease to find in order to repair it.

Figure 6: Eco Wood extrusion line

Figure 3: Wood Sawdust Crusher

Figure 7: Hauling off and cutting machine

4. Plant Location

Figure 4: Plastics crushing, washing and drying line

Figure 8: Map for Taman Perindustrian Bukit Serdang

From our discussions, we are choosing

Taman Perindustrian Bukit Serdang as our
location for the Eco Wood Factory. This is
because the plant location has to be
Figure 5: Wood/Plastics Granulating machine

locating in the rural area based on the

analysis and must not far than 10 km

within the radius of the center of the town.

5. Plant Size and Plant Layout

Besides the transportation cost can also be

reduces by limit the distance between plant
and the town.

We assume our plant will be 100 m in

length and 80 m in width with total area of
8000 m2 as shown in Figure 9.

100m

80m

Figure 9: Layout for Eco Woods Factory

power cost that we required is about RM

6. Financial Analysis
Due to the market demand that had shown
in marketing analysis, estimation of market

409,200/year. Therefore, the total variable

cost is RM 8,518,800/year.

demand for next five years is about 360

The break even analysis is done by using

million of wood-fiber/thermoplastic blend

fixed cost, total revenue and the total cost

or more than that. Therefore, assuming this

as shown in Graph 1. Total cost is

plant is able to produce 1,908,000 m of

summation of total fixed cost and total

blend per year. The market price for the

variable cost. The break -even point is

blend is about RM12.00 per meter. Total

calculated which is equal to 175384.62

revenue for producing 1,908,000m of

production. It means that the company will

blend with the selling price of RM12.00

start to get profit after selling 175385 m of

per meter is RM22, 896,000 per year. For

wood-fiber/thermoplastic blend. The time

a meter of wood-fiber/thermoplastic blend,

that estimated to get back the profit is

it is required to use 2.4 kg of waste wood

about 1 month.

and 3.6 kg of waste plastic. Estimation of

total

waste

wood

required

is

4,579,200kg/year and 6,868,800 kg/year.

For Fixed Cost, the equipment cost is

Graph 1: Break -even Analysis

180000000

Break-even Analysis

160000000
140000000

about RM140, 000 and the plant area cost

120000000

is about RM1,000,000. The total of capital

100000000
Cost(RM)
80000000

investment is RM1, 322,400. Assuming

60000000

the capital charge is 15% of capital

40000000

investment,

000.

20000000

Assuming the insurance charge is 1% of

which

is

RM171,

Fixed
cost(RM)
Total
revenue(RM)
Total
cost(RM)

capital investment, which is RM11, 400.

No of production

Therefore, the total fixed cost is RM

1,322,400.
REFERENCES
For Variable Cost, the raw material cost is
about RM 8,013,600/year and the total
annual utility cost is also assume as
RM84,000/year. The maintenance cost is
assumed about RM12, 000/year. The man

1.

http://www.cosset.com.au/wood-plastic-composite

2.

https://elibrary.asabe.org/abstract.asp?aid=22102&t=
2&redir=&redirType=

3.

http://www.cosset.com.au/wood-plastic-composite

APPENDICES

day
year

annual revenue= market price of wood-fiber/thermoplastic blend per meter * length(m) of product produce per year
length(m)
working days : 5 days in a week
7950
working days: 240 days in a year
1,908,000
annual revenue= RM 12*1908,000 = RM22,896,000
CAPITAL COST
Equipment cost
Rawing material coloring mixing
Extruding
Profile extrusion mold
Vacuum cooling calibration table
Embossing device
Calendering device
Hauling off machine
Cutting off
Embossing or polishing

cost per unit(RM/unit)

10,000
20,000
28,000
25,000
10,000
10,000
15,000
12,000
10,000
TOTAL

Plant area cost

structure and design
piping
land
TOTAL

cost(RM)
300,000
200,000
500,000
1,000,000

Production cost:
Variable cost:
Assume 360 million of requirement in market in next 5 years.
will need to produce 72 million of wood-fibe/thermoplastic blend.
Each meter of blend consist of 2.4 kg waste wood and 3.6 kg waste plastic
Total 1,908,000 meter of blend that can be produced required:
Total waste wood(kg)
Total waste plastic(kg)
4579200
6868800
Capacity of recycling plant
Waste wood(kg/year)
waste plastic(kg/year)
4,600,000
6,900,000
Ingredient
waste wood
waste plastic

cost(RM/kg)

Utility cost
Electricity supply
Water supply
Total
Fixed capital :
Maintenance

RM/month
RM/year
4000
3000
7000

1
0.5
TOTAL

weight(kg/year)
4,579,200
6,868,800

RM1000/month
RM12000/year

48000
36000
84000

total cost(RM/year)
4579200
3434400
8013600

no of unit
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

total price (RM)

10,000
20,000
28,000
25,000
10,000
10,000
15,000
12,000
10,000
140,000

Manpower cost
Labour
Engineer
Manager
Assistant Manager

No. of person RM/person

RM/month RM/year
19
900
17100
205200
4
2500
10000
120000
1
4000
4000
48000
1
3000
3000
36000
TOTAL
34100
409200

Total fixed cost

Capital investment = equipment cost + plant area cost = RM140,000 + RM1,000,000 = RM 1,140,000
Assume the capital charge is 15% of capital investment
capital charge = RM 1,140,000 * 0.15 = RM 171,000
Assume insurance is 1% of the capital investment
Insurance = RM 1,140,000*0.01 = RM11,400
Total capital investment = capital investment + capital charge + insurance
RM
1322400
Variable cost
Annual production cost
raw material cost + total annual utility cost + maintenance + man power cost
RM 8013600/year + RM 84000/year + RM 12000/year + RM 409200/year
RM/year
8518800
Break even analysis :
No
No of production Fixed cost(RM) Variable cost(RM) Total cost(RM)Total revenue(RM)Profit(RM)
1
0
1322400
0
1322400
0
-1322400
2
1908000
1322400
8518800
9841200
22896000
13054800
3
3816000
1322400
17037600
18360000
45792000
27432000
4
5724000
1322400
25556400
26878800
68688000
41809200
5
7632000
1322400
34075200
35397600
91584000
56186400
6
9540000
1322400
42594000
43916400
114480000
70563600
7
11448000
1322400
51112800
52435200
137376000
84940800
8
13356000
1322400
59631600
60954000
160272000
99318000
Break-even point =
RM 1,322,400/(RM12- RM 4.46)
175384.62

175385
It means that the company will start to get profit after selling 175385m of wood-fiber/thermoplastic blend
How many years to get return:

x years = 0.09 year

1 month

Conclusion
Thus this process of Eco Wood is a need. Not just for the industry need but also to preserve our environment as our plant is
made by the urge to recycle all the waste wood and plastic that being thrown away without any use. The combination or
blending in between the waste wood and waste plastic is compatible as the characteristic of plastic that soften when heated
and harden while cooled. This Eco Wood is a product that can be easily processed into various shapes and recycled.