Development of Composite Fibre Board (CFB) using Coconut Coir Pith and Rice Husks with Phenol Formaldehyde Resin

Recently, rice and coconut industries are growing rapidly in Sri Lanka due to utilization of new technology may be after the year 2005. The wastes generated from these industries are mainly rice husks and coconut coir pith. They are only used as potting media in horticultural aspects. But there is a potential to utilize them as an economical and ecofriendly raw material to manufacture composite fibre boards (CFBs) which can be used to replace the wood based medium density fibre boards (MDF). As the bonding agent phenol formaldehyde was used in manufacturing of CBFs. Cold pressed sheets were cured in a hydraulic press at 170 oC for 20 minutes under the pressure of 25 MPa. Hardness, density, internal bonding and absorption of moisture of CBFs were measured according to ASTM standards compared to the standards of MDF boards by taking it as the control sample. Each sample was replicated 5 times and tests were carried out at room temperature (25°C). Data was analyzed using Minitab 16 statistical software with use of Tukey pairwise comparison. Coir pith based CFBs have shown 477.55 pounds hardness and it is very close to the hardness of MDF boards. Statistically, the rice husk based CFB have also indicated different hardness compared to MDF boards and the value was 419.44 pounds. Density of 723.0 kg/m3 has achieved by coir based CFB which is higher comparatively to rice husk based CFB (690.2 kg/m3). Higher internal bonding has indicated by the coir pith based CFB and it does not have shown a significant difference to the standard. Both CFBs have absorbed moisture more than 12% but that absorbance is not significant in comparison to the standards. In conclusion, both rice husk and coir pith can be utilized as a raw material for manufacturing of composite fibre boards. This investigation appears as a better solution for environmental problem associated with these wastes and it is economical to utilize to manufacture composite fibre boards.