Effect of Banana Fiber in the Properties of Clayey Ceramic

Abstract

Banana is a typical fruit that grows in warm tropical regions of the world including everywhere in Brazil. The production of the banana plant takes place year round and its pseudo-stem, mostly made of lignocellulosic fibers, is discarded as waste. The banana fibers posses a relatively higher content of potassium, which is an alkaline element of interest to the production of common clayey ceramics, like red brick, owing to its fluxing action. Therefore, the present work investigated the effect of banana pseudo-stem fiber incorporation on the technological properties of a clayey ceramic fired at 700, 900 and 1050°C. In spite of a possible contribution to liquid phase formation, the incorporation of up to 10 wt% of banana fiber impaired the ceramic properties, especially when fired at 1050°C