High fiber fraction DDGS – A functional filler for manufacturing low-density particleboards

Abstract

Increasing demand for wood in the particleboard industry, its associated cost, and the potential health issues with chemical resins have led to a search for using environment friendly renewable agricultural products to replace the wood particles. The objective of this study was to evaluate the properties of particleboards manufactured from renewable products such as wheat straw and the high fiber fraction of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS). The high fiber fraction of the DDGS was obtained by sieving and aspiration to get two fractions - one with high protein and another with high neutral detergent fiber (NDF) content compared with the original DDGS. The number 20 sieved and aspirated lighter fraction (SA#20-L) had the highest NDF content at 25.44% higher than the original DDGS. Therefore, this SA#20-L fraction was selected for particleboard manufacturing. Particle size distribution (PSD) was analyzed using ∑Volume machine vision approach to study the effect of particle morphology and size on properties of boards. Low-density particleboards were made from SA#20-L DDGS and wheat straw at three different loadings of DDGS (25%, 50%, and 75%) using 3% (dry basis) phenol formaldehyde (PF) resin. Particleboards with the same the DDGS loading and processing conditions were also manufactured from original DDGS to test the effectiveness of using the high fiber DDGS for manufacturing particleboards. The inclusion of DDGS (both SA#20-L and original) at 25% loading in the wheat straw boards had comparable mechanical properties to control wheat straw particleboards. With the inclusion of even higher DDGS loading (50% and 75%), physical properties were significantly improved as compared to control, but mechanical properties declined. Modulus of Elasticity (MOE) was superior for high fiber DDGS than particleboards made from the original DDGS. Other mechanical properties, however, were better for the original DDGS. At 25% DDGS loading, both SA#20-L and original DDGS met the ANSI 208.1 standard for MOE, modulus of rupture, and internal bond values for low-density particleboards.