Author(s)

Róger Moya, Diego Camacho, Julio Mata, Roy Soto Fallas

Escuela de Ingeniería Forestal, Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, Cartago, Costa Rica;.
Escuela de Química, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional, Heredia, Costa Rica..
Escuela de Química, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica;.

Lignocellulosic residues resulting from agricultural activities and urban centers cause pollution. A possible solution to this problem is to combine these residues with woody plants to produce particleboards. The purpose of this study was to evaluate decay resistance, coating and burning properties and the change of color caused by accelerated weathering of particleboards manufactured with a combination of 3 woody species used for commercial reforestation in tropical areas (Cupressus lusitanica, Gmelina arborea and Tectona grandis), pineapple (Ananas comosus) leaves from the crown and the plant (PL), empty fruit bunch of Elaeis guineensis (EBF) and tetra pak packages (TP). According to the results, the mixtures of T. grandis and EFB were classified as moderately resistant and other mixtures (woody species and PL or TP) were classified as slightly resistant. The finish performance test determined that the mixtures with TP presented the best performance, followed by the mixtures with oil palm components and the mixtures composed of pineapple leaves. Regarding lacquer consumption, no differences were found between the mixtures. The combustion test determined that particleboards with TP and EFB showed the highest resistance to combustion, while pineapple presented the lowest resistances to combustion. In the accelerated weathering exposure test, the mixtures of the three species with TP showed the best performance in accelerated weathering. Contrariwise, the mixtures with pineapple leaves showed the lowest resistance to accelerated weathering. Oil palm particleboards presented lower resistance to weathering than TP, though higher than pineapple leaves’ resistance.

Tropical Species; Particleboards; Lignocellulosic Residues; Agricultural Crop

R. Moya, D. Camacho, J. Mata and R. Fallas, "Fungal Decay, Coating, Burning Properties and Change of Color of Particleboards Manufactured with Woody Biomass, Agricultural Wastes and Tetra Pak Residues," Journal of Biomaterials and Nanobiotechnology, Vol. 4 No. 4, 2013, pp. 334-342. doi: 10.4236/jbnb.2013.44042.