THERMAL INSULATION PERTICLE BOARD MADE FROM SUGARCANE

BAGASSE AND KENAF FIBERS REINFORCED WITH POLYETHYLENE

STEPHANIE MUJAN HAMILTON

UNIVERSITI TEKNIKAL MALAYSIA MELAKA

i

SUPERVISOR VERIFICATION

“I hereby declare that I have read this thesis and in my opinion this report is

sufficient in terms of scope and quality for the award of the degree of Bachelor of

Mechanical Engineering (Thermal- Fluids).”

Signature :….…………………………..

Name of Supervisor :……………………………..

Date :………………………………

ii

DECLARATION

“I hereby declare this report is resulted from my own research except as cited in

references”

Signature :………………………….

Author’s Name :…………………………

Date :………………………….

iii

DEDICATION

To my beloved parents

iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, I would like to thank our God Almighty for the blessings and love

that He gave to me throughout my time on completing this project and also to the

people who have helped me. Amen.

I would like to thank and give millions of appreciation to my supervisor, Mr.

Md Isa bin Ali for the continuous support and guidance, relentless assists me with

lots of advice and encouragement along the way of completing this progress report. I

would like to thank Mr. Shamsul bin Bahari for his guidance along this project. He

had helped me a lot during finishing this project by giving many ideas and solutions

everytime I faced problems. Furthermore, I would also like to thank Dr Mohd.

Zulkefli bin Selamat for helping me and assisting me in process of completing this

report. Besides that, I also want to thank all those technicians that help me along this

project.

Also, I would like to thank my fellow classmates in which without them, my

work won’t go as smoothly as needs be. It is my appreciation to all of you for sharing

your opinions in this project. I would also like to thank all of the technicians for

helping and providing extra knowledge during the completion of the report.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my family members, for their moral

supports toward me throughout this project.

.

v

ABSTRACT

This study is about inventing a thermal insulation particle board. Sugarcane

bagasse and kenaf fibers were chosen for this project. It is believed that natural fibers

have a lot of advantages compared to the non-natural fibers. These materials will be

formed into a composite particle board by using polyethylene as the binder. In this

study, different composition of these three main materials will be produced. The first

composition consists of 100% polyethylene. The second composition is 80%

polyethylene, 10% kenaf fiber and 10% sugarcane baggase. The third composition is

60% polyethylene, 10% sugarcane baggase, 30% kenaf fiber while the fourth

composition is 60% of polyethylene, 10% kenaf fiber and 30% of sugarcane bagasse.

The mechanical properties for every different composition will be measured by using

Rockwell for the hardness test. Instron will be used for the tensile and bending test,

KD2 Pro to measure the thermal conductivity and pendulum impact test machine to

measure the impact. Based on all mechanical tests that had being done, the

composition with 60% polyethylene, 30% sugarcane and 10% of kenaf fibers has the

best mechanical properties.

vi

ABSTRAK

Kajian ini adalah mengenai penghasilan papan komposit yang dapat

menghalang proses penukaran haba terjadi di antara dimensi yang berbeza. Hampas

tebu dan gentian kenaf akan digunakan sebagai bahan utama untuk penghasilan

komposit ini. Serat semulajadi memiliki lebih banyak kelebihan jika dibandingkan

dengan serat yang bukan semulajadi.. Polietilena akan bertindak menjadi pengikat

bagi dua bahan ini. Nilai komposisi yang berbeza untuk papan yang berbeza akan

dikenakan dan dihasilkan. Terdapat empat komposisi yang berlainan yang telah

dilakukan di dalam kajian ini. Komposisi yang pertama adalah 100% polietilena.

Komposisi yang kedua adalah 80% polietilena, 10% gentian kenaf dan 10% hampas

tebu. Komposisi yang kedua terdiri daripada 60% polietilena, 10% gentian kenaf dan

30% hampas tebu. Manakal komposisi yang keempat terdiri daripada 60%

polietilena, 10% hampas tebu dan 30% gentian kenaf. Papan yang tercipta akan diuji

dengan menggunakan Rockwell untuk ujian kekuatan, Instron untuk ujian

ketegangan dan kelenturan manakala KD2 Pro akan digunakan untuk mencari kadar

konduksi terma. Mesin pendulum ujian hentaman digunakan untuk menguji kekuatan

hentaman. Setelah menjalankan kesemua ujian mekanikal tersebut keatas setiap

papan yang berlainan komposisi, papan yang memiliki komposisi 60% polietilena ,

30% hampas tebu dan 10% gentian kenaf merupakan papan yang memiliki ciri-ciri

mekanikal yang paling baik.

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER TOPIC PAGE

VERIFICATION i

DECLARATION ii

DEDICATION iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv

ABSTRACT v

ABSTRAK vi

TABLE ON CONTENTS vii

LIST OF TABLE x

LIST OF FIGURE xi

LIST OF SYMBOL AND ABBREVIATIONS xiii

LIST OF APPENDIX xiv

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 BACKGROUND OF PROJECT 1

1.2 OBJECTIVES 2

1.3 SCOPES 2

1.4 PROBLEM STATEMENT 3

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 NATURAL FIBERS 4

2.1.1 Sugarcane Fibers 7

2.1.2 Kenaf Fibers 10

2.1.3 Bamboo Fibers 12

2.1.4 Pineapple Fibers 13

2.1.5 Coconut Coir 14

2.2 THERMAL INSULATION 15

viii

2.2.1 Composites 17

2.2.2 Particle Board 18

2.2.3 Applications of Thermal Insulation 19

2.3 COMPOSITES REINFORCEMENT METHOD 20

2.3.1 Polyethylene 22

2.3.2 Polyurethane 23

2.3.3 Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) 24

2.3.4 Polypropylene 25

2.4 MECHANICAL TEST 25

2.4.1 Tensile Test 26

2.4.2 Hardness Test 29

2.4.3 Bending Test 30

2.4.4 Thermal Conductivity 31

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 32

3.1 COMPOSITION OF MATERIALS 32

3.2 PREPARATION OF MATERIALS 33

3.2.1 Preparation of Sugarcane Baggase Powder 33

3.2.2 Preparation of Kenaf Fibers 34

3.2.3 Preparation of Mixed Materials 35

3.3 FORMATION OF PARTICLE BOARD 36

3.4 TEST METHOD AND EQUIPMENT USED 38

3.4.1 Tensile Test 38

3.4.2 Flexural Test 38

3.4.3 Thermal Conductivity 39

3.4.4 Hardness Test 40

3.4.5 Impact Test 40

CHAPTER 4 RESULTS 41

4.1 TENSILE TEST 41

4.2 FLEXURAL TEST 42

4.3 THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY TEST 43

4.4 HARDNESS TEST 44

4.5 IMPACT TEST 44

ix

CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION 45

5.1 TENSILE TEST 46

5.2 FLEXURAL TEST 48

5.3 THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY TEST 49

5.4 HARDNESS TEST 51

5.5 IMPACT TEST 52

5.6 EVALUATION OF PARTICLE BOARDS 52

CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 55

6.1 CONCLUSION 55

6.2 RECOMMENDATION 56

REFERENCES 57

APPENDIX A 63

APPENDIX B 66

APPENDIX C 72

x

LIST OF TABLE

NO TITLE PAGE

2.1 Average bagasse compositions 6

2.2 Bagasse chemical composition 9

2.3 The chemical composition of coir 15

2.4 The advantages and disadvantages of resin matrix 22

2.5 The value of PVC properties 25

3.1 Composition of Materials 32

3.2 Weight needed for every material of different composition

for every mixing process 36

3.3 Pictures of Particle Boards Formed of Different Composition 37

4.1 Value of Tensile Stress (MPa) of Different Composition 42

4.2 Value of Flexural Stress (MPa) of Different Composition 43

4.3 Value of Thermal Conductivity (W.m/K) of Different

Composition 43

4.4 Value of Hardness (D) of Different Composition 44

4.5 Value of Impact (J) of Different Composition 44

5.1 Average Value of Every Test of Different Composition 46

5.2 List of Thermal Conductivity Obtained for Different Board 50

from Previous Studies

5.3 Evaluation Table for Every Composition in Every Test 54

xi

LIST OF FIGURES

NO TITLE PAGE

2.1 Annual production of agricultural waste 6

2.2 Cross section of different fiber 7

2.3 Remaining fractions of lignocellulosic components in bagasse

samples after pretreatment steps 8

2.4 Structure of kenaf plant 10

2.5 The vertical variation of fiber length for bast and core in kenaf 11

2.6 The hierarchical bamboo fiber different organization 13

2.7 Production process of insulating board made from coconut husk 15

2.8 Comparison of thermal conductivities and densities of insulation

board made from agricultural waste materials 17

2.9 The process for composite part manufacturing; sugarcane fibers

reinforced with polypropylene 18

2.10 Particle board 19

2.11 The mechanism of the application of thermal insulation in high

capacitance multilayer 19

2.12 Laser for combining thermosetting and thermoplastic 21

2.13 Polyethylene 22

2.14 Chemical structure of polyurethane 23

2.15 Method for testing shape retention and shape recovery rate 26

2.16 Tensile specimen 26

2.17 The schematic representation of the micromechanical techniques 27

2.18 Stress vs % strain of various natural fibers 28

2.19 Typical pull-out test load–displacement curves 28

2.20 Effect of the surface treatment on the tensile strength for different

fiber composites 29

xii

2.21 Variation of hardness as the function of density 29

2.22 Loading curve for bending 30

2.23 Loading curve for compression 30

2.24 Variation of thermal conductivity as a function of density 31

3.1 Preparation of Sugarcane Bagasse 33

3.2 Kenaf fiber 34

3.3 Crusher 34

3.4 Crushed Kenaf Fiber 34

3.5 Preparation of Mixed Material 35

3.6 Mold 37

3.7 Hot Pressed Machine 37

3.8 Instron Machine 38

3.9 Tensile Test 38

3.10 Specimen 38

3.11 Flexural Test Jig 39

3.12 KD2 Pro 39

3.13 Drilling Process 39

3.14 Durometer 40

3.15 Hardness Test 40

3.16 Pendulum Swing Impact Test Machine 40

4.1 Tensile Stress versus Tensile Strain of 100% 41

Polyethylene Particle Board

4.2 Flexural Stress versus Flexural Extension 42

for 100% Polyethylene

5.1 Tensile Stress (MPa) versus Composition (PE+K+S) 47

5.2 Flexural Stress (MPa) versus Composition (PE+K+S) 48

5.3 Thermal Conductivity (W/mK) versus composition (PE+K+S) 49

5.4 Hardness Test (D) versus Composition (PE+K+S) 51

5.5 Impact (J) versus Composition (PE+K+S) 52

xiii

LIST OF SYMBOL AND ABBREVIATIONS

k = Thermal Conductivity, (W/mK)

D = Hardness Reading, D

PE = Polyethylene

K = Kenaf fibers

S = Sugarcane bagasse

ASTM = American Society for Testing and Materials

xiv

LIST OF APPENDIX

NO TITLE PAGE

A Gantt chart for PSM 1 64

Gantt chart for PSM 2 65

B Graphs of Tensile Test 66

C Graphs of Flexural Test 72

1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT

Thermal insulation is a process of reducing heat transfer between different

objects or two different regions. Thermal insulation also can be known as heat flow

resistor. (Dictionary of Construction, 2012). Wall insulation and roof insulation are

two of the applications of thermal insulation that are always being used in the society

nowadays. These two types of insulations are used to reduce the amount of heat from

transferring into the inside part of a building or a house. Wall insulation and roof

insulation are in the form of particle board which act as the wall and roof for certain

building or houses.

How effective an insulation process is depends on the type of materials used

and the process of the particle board production. These will cause the different in

properties for different process or different materials used for every thermal

insulation particle board. Three of the raw materials that are always being used for

insulation purpose are synthetic polymer or synthetic fiber which is petroleum based,

natural fibers and wool. The examples of synthetic polymers are polyurethane and

polystyrene. While for natural fibers, it can be found in sugarcane, bamboo, flax,

cotton or jute. Wool can be found in fiberglass, rock wool and sheep wool.

Sugarcane fibers can be obtained from sugarcane bagasse. Bagasse can be

obtained as a by-product of sugar cane processing, which is composed of fiber, pith,

non-soluble solids and water. Fibers represent about half of all the components

2

(Almazan et al., 1998). Kenaf is a type of bio-composite plant. Its scientific name is

Hibiscus Cannabinus L. (Merriam-Webster, 2002). Kenaf is a type of plant that

produces strong fibers.

1.2 OBJECTIVES

1. To design a particle board made from sugarcane bagasse and kenaf fibers

reinforced with polyethylene with different composition.

2. To study the mechanical properties of the particle board made from sugarcane

baggase and kenaf fibers reinforced with polyethylene.

1.3 SCOPES

This study is about process investigation of inventing a thermal insulation

particle board. The process for this study can refer to gantt charts provided in

Appendix A. This can be achieved through the selection of the materials used in the

making of the particle board. The scope of this study is to produce an effective

thermal insulation particle board which is made from sugarcane bagasse and kenaf

fibers.

From this experiment, the different compositions of the materials were

chosen to be formed into particle boards. Calculations were made for every

composition to weight 220 gram. For a particle board preparation, approximately 220

gram of mixed polyethylene, sugarcane and kenaf fibers are needed.

A few tests had been done to obtain the mechanical properties of different

composition of particle boards. The tests are tensile test, flexural test, thermal

conductivity, impact test and hardness test.

3

1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT

The temperature of a house can increase easily or rapidly nowadays

especially during the hot weather. This is due to solar radiation. Most of the people

choose to use air conditioner to cool down their house. However, not everyone can

afford air conditioner. Besides, it is much harder for everyone to afford an eco-

friendly air conditioner due to its higher price compare with the other ordinary air

conditioner. This study was made to overcome this problem. The insulators can help

in preventing heat from entering the house and also help to maintain the temperature

of the house. Some of the method that had been done for the matter of this problem is

aluminium foil as the radiant barrier.

Rockwool also had being used widely for heat insulation. It is also good for

sound absorption. The other material that is used for insulation is gypsum board.

Natural fibers are always used as a green building material. Insulation wall with

petroleum is not very eco-friendly. It is expensive and non-biodegrable. This study is

to create and eco-friendly thermal insulation particle board. This can be achieved by

decreasing the use of petroleum based and replacing it with natural fibers. An eco-

friendly type of particle board is also more practical to produce. Sugarcane is widely

used around the world. It is easily to be found anywhere around the world. The

quality or sugarcane can be improved by forming it into fiber board. The fiber board

can be used as wall, partition, wall insulation or ceiling panel.

4

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 NATURAL FIBERS

Natural fiber is a type of fibers that came from natural sources such as, plant,

animals and mineral sources. Fiber is a type of hair like materials in a continuous

form of filament which is a discrete elongate piece. Fibers are available from many

of these materials, and they are also called plant fibers, natural fibers or vegetable

fibers (Satyanarayana et al., 2007). Fibers can be found in many different type of

source such as, pineapple, kenaf, sugarcane, bamboo, animal hair, feathers, sheep fur,

goat and other.

Most of the fibers have to go through extraction method before involve in the

manufacturing process. Extraction of fibers is a method of separating the fibers from

the other non-fibers part of the sources. Different type of fibers will have their own

extraction method which is depend on their chemical composition or properties.

Some of the fibers just have to be dried to get the fibers while some plant has to go

through chemical reaction to be extracted.

Natural fibers had being used rapidly so long in manufacturing materials. It

can be used for many application and purpose such as producing composites or

particle board. These materials can be used for further purpose such as in automotive

industry, building construction for insulation purpose, human comfort uses like

blanket or tissues, textile, building, plastics and many more. Fibers can be used to

manufacture low cost material. Fiber is one of the materials that being proposed for

5

future reinforcing materials. It is easily to be found in most of the origins among

developing countries (Aziz et al., 1981). Many technologies have been applied

toward fibers in order to produce a good quality of fiber reinforced materials. Fibers

are widely used in the society for the application of insulators, human comfort used,

building construction and manufacturing materials. Fibers are widely used due to its

advantages. Fibers are very easy to be found. Besides that, it is also low density but

has quite high specific strength. Fibers are also believes non-relatively non-abrasive,

easy for the surface modification. Plus, it is very widely available (Ribot et al.,

2011). For many years, one of the application fibers had involved with is for the

reinforcement purpose and act as fillers in manufacturing industries such as

thermoplastic and thermosetting composites.

However, natural fibers have their own weaknesses such as lack of good

interfacial adhesion, low melting point, and poor resistance towards moisture. These

weaknesses cause use of natural fiber reinforced composites becoming less attention.

By doing treatment on the natural fibers is believed can help to clean and chemically

modify the surface, stop the moisture absorption process, and also increase the

surface roughness (Kalia et al., 2009).

Based on Prakash (2009), there are two groups of natural fibers fillers; wood

and non-wood natural fibers. The examples for non-wood natural fibers are straw

fibers, bast, leaf, seeds, fruits and grass fibers. While for the wood fibers are soft or

hard woods.

Figure 2.1 is the annual production agricultural waste obtained from the study

of Satta et al. (2008). From this bar chart, bagasse has the highest amount of

production, while durian peel has the least production of all. Thus, from this study, it

is shown that baggase is the easiest waste material to be obtained. The amount of its

production yearly is the highest compare to the other waste material. Oil palm leaves

and rice hull are the second highest annual production waste materials.

6

Figure 2.1: Annual production of agricultural waste

(Source: Satta et al., 2008).

Table 2.1 shows the average bagasse compositions obtained from the study of

Verma et al. (2012). From the table, the composition for moisture is almost half of

the whole item, 49%. The other 48.7% is occupied by fibers. Soluble solids have the

lowest percentage inside the baggase composition. From this study, most of the

baggase composition stands from moisture. One of the ways to get rid of moisture is

by exposing them with heat. Soluble solids might be outside materials that get

attached accidentally together with the baggase. From this study, it is proven that

baggase is one of the most convenient waste materials ever. The composition is very

simple and separation between different types of compositions can be made easily.

Table 2.1: Average bagasse compositions

(Source: Verma et al., 2012).

Items Percentage (%)

1. Moisture 49.0

2. Soluble solids 2.3

3. Fiber 48.7

7

Figure 2.2 shows the cross section of different fiber plant that had been found

from Murali et al. (2007). According to this study, vakka plant has the largest

diameter among tested plants. The smallest diameter goes to sisal plant. The size of

the plant diameter determines the amount of fibers can be obtained from each plant.

Figure 2.2: Cross section of different fiber

(Source: Murali et al., 2007).

2.1.1 Sugarcane Fibers

Sugarcane is widely used around the world for the production of ethanol and

sugar. Sugarcane composed of fiber, pith, non-soluble solids and water (Almazan et

al., 1998). Sugarcane bagasse is a residue produced in large quantities by sugar

industries. Generally, 1 ton of sugarcane bagasse generates 280 kg of bagasse which

also known as the fibrous by-product remaining after sugar extraction from

sugarcane (Sun et al., 2004). Sugar cane is one of the photosynthetic materials that

work efficiently among the commercial crops. It can fix almost 2 - 3 percent of

radiant solar energy and transform it into green biomass. Sugarcane high

photosynthetic capability also allows it to show a high coefficient of carbon dioxide

fixation, comparable to the moderate climate zone woods. This contributes to the

decrease of the greenhouse effect (Cardona et al., 2010).

A very large amount of sugarcane bagasse can be easily obtained especially

at the sugar factory. In Brazil, during the 2010/2011 harvest, more than 625 million

tons of sugarcane were crushed for juice extraction, which generated around 208

8

million tons of sugarcane bagasse (CONAB, 2011). Thus, this made sugarcane one

of the most one of the most abundant low-cost lignocelullosic material (Cardona et

al., 2010). Lignocellulose is a combination of lignin and cellulose that strengthens

cells within sugarcane which is categorized as woody plant.

Sugarcane consists of three main parts, lignin, hemicelullose and cellulose.

Preliminary processing is needed to separate these three parts. These processes will

cause the breakage of cell wall structure by removing, simplifying or disintegrating

the lignin. The type of process used depends on the material used and the proposed

purpose of lignocellulosic fractions utilization. It is depend on how it is

mechanically, physically, biologically or chemically affected. The development of

pre-treatment processes has to be strong enough to separate the cell wall

arrangement. The process also has to be medium enough to avoid change in it

properties.

Acid and alkali treatment can be done to obtain the chemical composition of

the sugarcane. Figure 2.3 shows the chemical composition of untreated bagasse

samples and of samples submitted to acid 1% of sulphuric acid (H2SO4), and alkaline

pre-treatments (NaOH 0.25% to 4%).

Figure 2.3: Remaining fractions of lignocellulosic components in bagasse samples

after pre-treatment steps.

(Source: Rezende et al., 2011)

9

Tables 2.2 shows the results of bagasse chemical composition obtained in

different time reaction of bagasse treatment with sulphuric acid. (Candido et al.,

2012).

Table 2.2: Bagasse chemical composition

(Source: Candido et al., 2012)

Time reaction

(min) Cellulose (%)

Insoluble lignin

(%)

Soluble lignin

(%)

Hemicellulose

(%)

0 47.44 23.43 7.31 21.20

5 50.17 23.47 6.38 18.38

10 51.98 24.58 6.55 15.96

20 53.88 26.02 5.72 13.93

30 53.96 26.18 5.59 12.98

40 53.78 25.90 6.87 10.57

50 55.06 29.57 5.71 9.18

60 53.21 28.37 6.07 11.37

Satyanarayana et al. (2007) states that international trends in the study of

reveal that:

(i) Fibers have the potential to be used in automotive applications.

(ii) Fibers are one of the ideal competitors for the non-renewable.

(iii) Expensive petroleum-based synthetic fibers in composite materials

which are particularly are used in the automotive industry and

including building sectors.

(iv) The awareness of ecological concerns and particularly European

countries are passing laws which will require, by 2015, the use of up

to 95% recyclable materials in vehicles.

(v) It is possible to produce quality fibers, suitable for different

applications, through better cultivation, including genetic engineering

and treatment methods to get uniform properties.