Development of a non-wood composite from whole jute plant

Wood-based panel industries seek an alternative biomass to wood chips due to deforestation. This leads to the use of non-wood ligno-cellulose plant residues for the development of medium density particle board. Jute sticks after being extracted from jute fibre are used for the production of medium density particle board and charcoal; similarly, the whole jute plant is residual biomass after harvesting the jute seed and is used as household fuel. Being lignocellulosic residuals, they also have the potential for the development of particle board. Natural resin is being used for the binding of the particles. However, they lack bonding efficiency and dimensional stability due to their hydrophilicity. The objective of this study is to develop a medium density particle board with desirable mechanical properties from whole jute plant particles and rosin/phenol formaldehyde resin combination through optimization of processing protocols, i.e., size of particle (12.5, 25 & 50 mm), amount of mat feed (900, 1000 & 1100gm), amount of resin (15, 20 & 25 % owm) and the rosin/PF resin combination (70/30, 80/20 & 90/10 %). The density and modulus of rupture of particle boards were evaluated as per IS standards and the results were analyzed as per Taguchi model in Minitab 18.0 software. Statistical analysis revealed that there is a very good agreement between the predicted and actual values of the experiment, with an R2 value of > 0.95 in density only. To attain the desirable particle board with maximum 35 MPa modulus of rupture and a 0.50 gpcc density, the response optimizer identified the 26 mm particle size, 1100 gm particle weight, 25 % resin, and 70/30 rosin/PF combination as optimized condition with > 0.99 individual and 0.99 composite desirability.