Accelerated Thermal Aging of Bio-Based Composite Wood Panels

Brent Tisserat,Veera M Boddu,Nicholas Montesdeoca

doi:10.3390/fib8050032

Abstract

Bio-based adhesives and resins are sought as alternatives to synthetics in order to fabricate all-biobased composite wood panels (CWPs), which provide environmentally friendly building products for indoor use. Very little information exists as to how these bio-based CWPs would perform long-term in non-temperature controlled structures such as warehouses and storage units where extreme temperatures occur depending on the season. In this study, novel all-bio-based CWPs were fabricated using a matrix of 50% distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and 50% soybean flour ProsanteTM (PRO) mixed with wood particles. Bio-based CWPs were subjected to accelerated thermal aging for a 10-year period resembling outdoor temperatures in Peoria, IL USA. Four seasonal periods (Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall) were simulated varying from −26–40 °C and 36–76% relative humidity (RH). The bio-based adhesive employed consisted of 50% distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and 50% soybean flour ProsanteTM (PRO). CWPs consisted of 15 or 50% DDGS/PRO with 85% or 50% pine wood. CWPs were evaluated for 5, 7.5, and 10-years for their physical, flexural, dimensional stability, surface roughness, FTIR, TGA, and spectral properties. The changes in the CWP properties were notable during the initial 5 years, and later aged samples showed less change.

Highlights

Petroleum-based resins and adhesives create human health and environmental problems [1,2].environmentally benign and safe alternatives such as bio-based adhesive/resins to replace petroleum-based binders are being investigated in the research and industrial communities [1,3,4,5].Soybean flour is one of the most studied bio-based binder [2,6,7,8,9,10]
The lowest Water absorption (WA) and thickness swelling (TS) values occurred in composite wood panels (CWPs) composed of 50% and 75% matrix dosages, while the highest WA and TS values occurred in CWPS composed of 10% and 15% matrix dosages (Figure 2)
CWPs were fabricated employing 50% dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and 50% Prosante soybean flours as the matrix with pinewood reinforcements that rivaled the flexural properties of CWPs employing a matrix containing only Prosante flour only with pine wood

Summary

Introduction

Petroleum-based resins and adhesives create human health and environmental problems [1,2].environmentally benign and safe alternatives such as bio-based adhesive/resins to replace petroleum-based binders are being investigated in the research and industrial communities [1,3,4,5].Soybean flour is one of the most studied bio-based binder [2,6,7,8,9,10]. Petroleum-based resins and adhesives create human health and environmental problems [1,2]. Environmentally benign and safe alternatives such as bio-based adhesive/resins to replace petroleum-based binders are being investigated in the research and industrial communities [1,3,4,5]. Soybean flour is one of the most studied bio-based binder [2,6,7,8,9,10]. Soy flour is relatively expensive at a cost of ~$0.45/lb ($1.00/Kg) [11,12]. A relatively inexpensive distiller’s dried grains (DDGS) containing ~30% proteins has been found to exhibit excellent binding properties [5]. World soybean meal production was approximately 235 million metric tons in 2018, including the estimated U.S production of 41.5 million metric tons [12,13,14]

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