Lignocellulosic Composites from Acetylated Sunflower Stalks

Antonios Papadopoulos,George Kyzas,Athanasios Mitropoulos

doi:10.3390/app9040646

Antonios Papadopoulos, George Kyzas + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/app9040646

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Abstract

Sunflower stalks could be an alternative raw material for use in the particleboard industry since the requirements of P1 general purpose boards for use in dry conditions and P2 boards for interior fitment for use in dry conditions are easily satisfied. Acetylation of sunflower stalks is found to greatly improve the thickness swelling (TS) value, with acetylated boards showing 19.7% weight gain, meeting the TS requirements of P3 Non-Load-Bearing—Humid and P4 Load Bearing—Dry criteria; however, acetylation adversely affects the internal bond strength (IBS). It is suggested that combinations of industrial wood chips with sunflower raw material may be used for the overall improvement performance of the particleboards.

Highlights

Worldwide economic development has caused increased needs for converted wood products [1,2,3,4,5,6].A big challenge in the composites industry is the availability of cheaper materials in order to minimize the production cost
A variety of plants have been studied for use in composites manufacturing, including vine stalks [14], topinambour stalks [12,15], cotton stalks [16,17], coconut chips [18], bamboo chips [19,20,21], flax chips [22], and banana chips [23]
Other researchers suggested that sunflower stalk may be incorporated as a cheap raw material to produce particleboard with acceptable properties [37]

Summary

Introduction

Worldwide economic development has caused increased needs for converted wood products [1,2,3,4,5,6]. The implementation of agricultural residues as an option is growing and has come to the minds of many researchers in laboratories worldwide [7,8,9,10,11] The use of such materials may benefit both socioeconomic and environmental development since they are normally burnt in the field or ploughed into the soil. Other researchers suggested that sunflower stalk may be incorporated as a cheap raw material to produce particleboard with acceptable properties [37]. The feasibility of agricultural crop residues, such as cup plant, topinambour, and sunflower, used as an alternative raw material for particleboards was investigated [15].

Raw Material

Acetylation

Board Manufacture

Water Soak Test

Humidity Tests

Results and Discussion