Potential of Using Mixtures of Agricultural Residues for Producing Different Types of Pressed Wood

Abstract

The present research was carried out to investigate the potential of using agricultural residues as a raw material for producing different types of pressed wood.To fulfill the objective of this research, experiments were conducted to study the effect of some operating parameters on the pressed wood production processes. These parameters are: three agricultural residues mixtures (A: Wood saw dust + Linen sass + Rice straw), (B: Wood saw dust + Linen sass + Corn stalks) and (C:Wood saw dust + Linen sass + Cotton stalks), four pressing pressures (1, 3, 5 and 7 MPa), four pressing times (5, 10, 15 and 20 min) and two types of resin (Urea formaldehydes and Speria formaldehydes).The produced pressed wood samples were evaluated taking into consideration physical properties (Density, thickness swelling and water absorption) and mechanical properties (Modulus of rupture, modulus of elasticity and internal bond strength).The obtained data reveal that the final pressed wood quality was in the optimum region under conditions of 5 MPa pressing pressure, 15 min pressing time with the use of urea formaldehyde resin. The findings also illustrated that low density particleboards (PB) could be produced from the three used mixtures (A), (B) and (C), while medium density fiberboards (MDF) could be produced from mixtures (B) and (C). High density fiberboards (HDF) could be produced only from mixture (B).