Development and characterization of sustainable PLA/Olive wood waste composites for rehabilitation applications using Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF)

An understanding of how the construction industry can support the transition towards a Circular Economy (CE) of the built environment plays a key role in rehabilitation processes that often require skilled labor. Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF), an Additive Manufacturing (AM) technique, is a new technology recently proposed for this purpose. In recent years, a number of studies have been presented to improve the sustainability of the main materials used in 3D printing (e.g. PLA filament), suggesting, in particular, some interesting composite filaments. The present paper is related to the development and characterization of sustainable materials, able to reduce the environmental impacts of the conventional materials for FFF. More specifically, various composite filaments based on polylactic acid (PLA) and different amounts of olive wood scraps were produced by an extrusion process and fully characterized from a physical, thermal and mechanical point of view. As they are suitable for application in a low-cost 3D printing machine, these filaments are used to build simple 3D printed models as a first exploitation of architectural building elements based on wood powder. In addition, in order to evaluate the environmental advantages of the wood waste derived composite filaments, the impact indicators were also quantified by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA results showed environmental benefits resulting from the inclusion of wood scraps in PLA filaments (20% of wood corresponds to 10% impact reduction) supporting further research in this area.