WO2010013994A2

WO2010013994A2 - A fiber-granule board and production thereof

Info

Publication number: WO2010013994A2
Application number: PCT/MY2009/000106
Authority: WO
Inventors: Md. Abdul Mannan
Original assignee: UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SABAH
Current assignee: UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SABAH
Priority date: 2008-07-31
Filing date: 2009-07-30
Publication date: 2010-02-04
Anticipated expiration: 2011-01-31
Also published as: WO2010013994A3

Abstract

There is disclosed a fiber-granule board for construction industry, furniture industry and the like made of agricultural solid waste in particular comprising fibrous empty fruit bunch materials, porous oil palm shells materials and a suitable binder. The fibrous materials, porous materials and the binder are mixed, cold pressed for thickness and hot pressed for binder to set and further cooled before use.

Description

A FIBER-GRANULE BOARD AND PRODUCTION THEREOF

1.0 TECHNICAL FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to a fiber-granule board in particular a fiber-granule board utilizing agricultural solid waste for use in the construction and the like industries.

2.0 BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

Industries such as construction, furniture, boat building, packaging, musical instruments, sports equipment and the like very much depended on the supplies of natural wood and wood-based products such as plywood, particle panels or generally known as chipboard. There are three types of fiber boards, namely particle board, medium-density fiber board and hardboard. Sometimes fiber board is a synonym of particle board and the particle board refers to low-density fiber board. The particle board is denser, more uniform and cheaper than natural wood and plywood, and if is a substitute for wood and plywood when strength and appearance are less important than the cost. One disadvantage of the particle board is that if is very prone to expansion and discoloration due to moisture, particularly when it is not sealed or painted.

Some major applications of natural wood and wood-based product particularly plywood in the construction industry are as formworks, hoardings, exfernal walls, roof closures, floorings, internal partition walls, fronts, composite beams, truss connections, floor panels, concrete moulds, roof ceilings, arch-shaped roofs and the like. The natural wood or solid wood has limitations in engineering properties and dimension such as being prone to warping and splitting as humidity changes. The wood-based products such as plywood, particle panel and the like have high market demand because of several advantages. The plywood being wood-based product is made through superimposing and gluing together of several layers of thin wood with fibers made to cross perpendicular to each other and if is limited to two directions only. The particle panel is made from wood particles such as wood chips, sawdust and resin or other suitable binder, which is under hot pressed and extruded. Again, main raw materials for making both plywood and particle panel are from natural wood which is depleting worldwide.

Some major applications of natural wood and wood-based product particularly plywood in the construction industry are as formworks, hoardings, external walls, roof closures, floorings, infernal partition walls, fronts, composite beams, truss connections, floor panels, concrete moulds, roof ceilings, arch-shaped roofs and the like. The natural wood or solid wood has limitations in engineering properties and dimension such as being prone to warping and splitting as humidity changes. The wood-based products such as plywood, particle panel and the like have high market demand because of several advantages. The plywood being wood-based product is made through superimposing and gluing together of several layers of thin wood with fibers made to cross perpendicular to each other and it is limited to two directions only. The particle panel is made from wood particles such as wood chips, sawdust and resin or other suitable binder, which is under hot pressed and extruded. Again, main raw materials for making both plywood and particle panel are from natural wood which is depleting worldwide.

Due to the increasing cost of construction and furniture materials particularly natural wood and the continuous depletion of natural wood resources, the use of solid wastes is an alternative resource to meet the needs for the construction industry, furniture industry and the like. From agricultural industry particularly oil palm industry, large amount of solid wastes are discharged in the form of empty fruit bunch (EFB), frond, trunk and oil palm shell (OPS). These solid wastes if properly processed have shown to be great potential and can readily meet the design specifications. Material recovery from conversion of solid wastes into useful construction materials has not only environmental gains, but also satisfy the need of consumers' trend using products made from eco-friendly and natural solid wastes.

Since the construction, furniture and the like industry deals with large amount of materials, the major technical properties of solid wastes must be primarily understood before incorporation and use. The feasibility of solid waste utilisation depends on many factors, including the cost/benefit analysis etc. (economic, social and environmental cost). The economic gain is mafnly due io the cost of solid waste, which are usually either less than that of the natural material or much less than the cost of production of a new material. Environmental benefits are that natural resources and energy can be conserved and that the quantum of discharged waste info the environment is reduced.

Product performance on flexural strength, impact resistance, sound property, thermal conductivity, nailing, self-weight, durability, expected natural surface appearance among others are an essential area that needs to be observed in order to produce a fiber board product. Therefore, it is necessary to figure out the optimum ingredients to be included in the board composition in order to obtain the best performance and also to reduce the cost of production. The quantity of alternative ingredient needs to be ascertained in order to further enhance the board properties. The present invention seeks to provide a fiber board, which is suitable for the construction industry, furniture industry and the like. The proposed composition improves density, strength, impact, sound property, thermal conductivity, ductility, flexibility, durability and the like over known products.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

It is therefore an object of present invention to provide a board for construction industry, furniture industry and the like to preserve the natural wood resources from being depletion.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a board which is strong in flexural, high impact resistance, sound insulation, non-heat conductor, low thermal conductivity, wafer resistance, nailing property, strength, lightness, aesthetic values and such like.

These and other objects of present invention are accomplishing by providing, a fiber-granule board for use in the construction industry, furniture industry, packing industry and the like comprises of empty fruit bunch fibers,; oil palm shell granules; and a binder to bind the fruit bunch fibers and the shell granules; characterised in that the composition of the empty fruit bunch, oi! palm shell granules and binder is in the ratio of at least 7:1 :5 by weight.

The present invention is further accomplished by providing, a fiber-granule board for use in the construction industry, furniture industry, packing industry and the like comprises of empty fruit bunch fibers; oil palm shell granules; and a binder to bind the fruit bunch fibers and the shell granules; characterised in that the composition of the empty fruit bunch, oil palm shelf granules and binder is in the ratio of at least 1 :2:2 by weight.

The present invention is further accomplished by providing, a method of producing a fiber-granule board for use in the construction industry, furniture industry, packing industry and the like comprises the steps of

(a) shredding empty fruit bunch fibers, treating said shredded fibers with boiling wafer, mixing detergent powder into said boiling water mϊxfure; removing detergent by rinsing with water; drying said wet fibers; and spraying binder onto dried fibers;

(b) crushing oil palm shells; treating said crushed shells with boiling water, mixing detergent powder into said boiling water mixture; removing detergent by rinsing with wafer; drying said wet shells; and spraying binder onto dried shells; (c) mixing resin sprayed fibers and resin sprayed shells;

(d) cold pressing the mixture to reduce thickness;

(e) hot pressing the mixture to harden the binder, and

(f) cooling the bound mixture and trimmed to shape or size.

4.0 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING There is shown by way of example a representation of the preferred embodiment of the present invention,

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of the method for producing a fiber-granule board according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention. 5.0 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION

Oil palm waste is discharged in large amount in the form of leaves, fronds and old trunks from the palm oil mill as agricultural solid waste. The palm mill waste includes empty fruit bunch (EFB), oil palm shell (OPS), pericarp and effluent. The large amount of waste is generated at palm oil mill in the form of EFB with about 22% of FFB (fresh fruit bunch) and OPS with about 6% of FFB. Instead of discharging these solid wastes directly info the environment the solid wastes are utilized as alternative to natural wood or wood-based products. This is to synchronize the current trend in environmental control and solid waste disposal towards effective utilization of these agricultural solid wastes.

Empty fruit bunch fibers being naturally in brown colour, are very strong in tensile strength. If provides wider applications of product if the colour of the fibers can be converted info golden appearance like natural timber colour.

Oil palm shells are dark in colour, are porous and it will be advantageous in thermal conductivity property when used as roof tile. Similarly, it will improve sound insulation properties when used as partition wall or roof ceiling and the like. OPS have also very low values in aggregate crushing value (ACV) and aggregate impact value (AIV). The low ACV and

AlV indicate that OPS have very good energy absorbing properties. When using OPS as an ingredient in board composition, the good energy absorbing capacity will be advantageous to wall panel, partition wall, which are likely to expose to impact or shock loading. OPS being lightweight aggregate are proven in making lightweight concrete with compressive strength of more than 28N/mm² indicating OPS aggregates are very strong to resist compressive force. Thus OPS is superior quality than thin wood as used for plywood and, wood chips and sawdust as used for particle panel. Thus a product if made with combination of both EFB fibers and OPS will enhance density, strength, sound and heat insulation, aesthetic and many others. The properties EFB fibers and OPS are shown in Table 1 and Table 2 respectively. TABLE!

TABLE 2

Due to abundance, an artificially produced board is made possible comprising of the above fibers, porous OPS and a suitable binder or resin under suitable condition. In this respect, use of such artificially produced board enhances overall board properties such as density, strength, impact, sound property, ductility, flexibility, durability, thermal conductivity, natural surface appearance and many others. This provides green solution of agricultural solid waste disposal and proven to be able to withstand under normal environment.

The EFB as solid waste is discharged at palm oil mill after separating fresh fruits and is a bouquet combination of individual strands in natural condition with a natural blunt brown colour. The fibers are partly loose and partly paralleled lapping each other in thick formation through soft (lignin) composition. It is not truly rounded. However, the range of fiber diameter is between 0.4mm and 0.8mm with length of more than 50mm. The fibers have many impurities. The EFB are shredded to have required fiber length of 10-15mm and then immediately fibers are treated with boiling water mixed with detergent powder for about 10 minutes to remove impurities and to convert blunt brown colour to light-golden colour, which is similar to natural wood colour. After boiling, fibers are rinsed with potable water to remove detergent. The fibers are dried to reduce the moisture content to 8- 10%. These dried fibers are kept in air-fight bag to avoid high humidity which would allow moisture ingression into fibers.

The OPS are crushed at palm oil mill to form kernels and the crushed OPS are left there with the size range from small to up to 12.5mm. The OPS are in blunt black or blunt dark brown with many impurities and if has many shapes. In the similar way like the fibers treatment the OPS are also treated to remove impurities and to have sharp bright colour. They are also kept in similar way like fibers as described above. Before use, OPS are crushed into two granule sizes such as 4.75mm and 2.36mm.

The board is manufactured by mixing EFB fibers, OPS granules with a binder and forming the mix into a tray-mould as per required board size before cold press (pre-press). The required binder in liquid condition is sprayed through nozzles onto the fibers and the OPS separately. The binder sprayed fibers and OPS can be mixed thoroughly before placement info tray-mould or alternatively can be placed into fray-moulds separately. A weighing machine notes the weight for all ingredients. Example of the fibre- granule boards is shown in Table 3.

Table 3

The tray-mould is cold-pressed to reduce the thickness and for easy transport to hot-press machine. Again, the tray-mould will be hot- compressed with required pressure as per board thickness using binder's instructed temperature. This process sets and hardens the binder. The entire process must be done carefully to ensure the board has a correct size, consistency and uniform density. The board is then cooled and trimmed before packing.

Several types of binders or resins are available in market. The cheapest and easiest to use resin is Urea-Formaidehyde resin (UF resin), it is used for non-water resistant board. The phenol-formaldehyde resin (PF resin) is dark in colour and high durable, and is also relatively expensive. The PF resin can be used for water resistant board for external use. The melamϊne formaldehyde resin (MF resin) is moisture resistant and it is more expensive. All resins available in market basically formaldehyde based and their toxicity poses health risks, and thus it is classified by WHO (World Health Organisation) as human carcinogen. Again, these resins need high energy consumption due to high temperature (130-220⁰C) required for curing. Alternatively, polyurefhane adhesive is derived from oil and is classified as impermeable and non-aggressive to human. It is also expensive. If can be cured at ambient temperature, but accelerating curing can- be done at elevated temperature (60-90⁰C). In order to make final product fireproof, waterproof, insect proof or for other quality, these resins or adhesive are mixed with other additive before use in mix.

The process for producing the fiber-granule board is shown in Fig. 1. Table 4 shows the engineering properties of fiber-granule board, which are very good in terms of density, breaking load, bending strength, impact resistance and thermal properties. Alternative fiber to replace the empty fruit bunch is the oil palm trunk fiber wherein after treatment similar to that of the empty fruit bunch produces similar properties of fiber-granule board. Thus, the conversion of agricultural solid waste, in particular solid waste from oil palm mill, into usable products would benefit both the environment and living individuals alike.

Table 4

While the preferred embodiment of present invention has been described, it should be noted that various changes, adaptations and modifications may be made thereto. It should be understood, therefore, that the invention is not limited to details of the illustrated invention shown in the figure and that variations in such minor details will be apparent to one skilled in the art.

Claims

What Is Claimed Is:

1. A ffber-granuie board for use in the construction industry, furniture industry, packing industry and the like comprises of empty fruit bunch fibers; oil palm shell granules; and a binder to bind the fruit bunch fibers and the shell granules; characterised in that composition of the empty fruit bunch, the oil palm shell granules and the binder is in the ratio of at least 7:1 :5 by weight.

2. A fiber-granule board for use in the construction industry, furniture industry, packing industry and the like comprises of empty fruit bunch fibers; oil palm shell granules; and a binder to bind the fruit bunch fibers and the shell granules; characterised in that the composition of the empty fruit bunch, the oil palm shell granules and the binder is in the ratio of at least 1 :2:2 by weight.

3. A method of producing a fiber-granule board for use in the construction industry, furniture industry, packing industry and the like comprises the steps of

(a) shredding empty fruit bunch fibers, treating said shredded fibers with boiling wafer, mixing detergent powder into said boiling wafer mixture; removing detergent by rinsing with water; drying said wet fibers; and spraying binder onto said dried fibers;

(b) crushing oil palm shells; treating said crushed shells with boiling water, mixing detergent powder into said boiling wafer mixture; removing detergent by rinsing with wafer; drying said wet shells; and spraying binder onto said dried shells; (c) mixing resin sprayed fibers and resin sprayed shells;

(d] cold pressing the mixture to reduce thickness;

(ej hot pressing the mixture to harden the binder; and (f) cooling the bound mixture and trimmed to shape or size.

4. A fiber-granule board for use in the construction industry, furniture industry, packing industry and the like as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the empty fruit bunch fibers is replaceable with trunk fibers.

5. A fiber-granule board for use in the construction industry, furniture industry, packing industry and the like as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 or claim 4 wherein the empty fruit bunch fibers and the trunk fibers are byproducts of oil palm plant.

6. A method of producing a fiber-granule board for use in the construction industry, furniture industry, packing industry and the like as claimed in claim 3 wherein the empty fruit bunch fibers is replaceable with trunk fibers.

7. A method of producing a fiber-granule board for use in the construction industry, furniture industry, packing industry and the like as claimed in claim 3 or claim 6 wherein the empty fruit bunch fibers and the trunk fibers are byproducts of oil palm plant.