Compatibility assessment for physical and mechanical properties of empty fruit bunch cement-bonded fibreboard

• Main Author: Dullah, Hayana
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English; English; English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: TS1080-1268 Paper manufacture and trade
• Online Access: http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/154/1/24p%20HAYANA%20BINTI%20DULLAH.pdf; http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/154/2/HAYANA%20BINTI%20DULLAH%20COPYRIGHT%20DECLARATION.pdf; http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/154/3/HAYANA%20BINTI%20DULLAH%20WATERMARK.pdf; http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/154/

Agricultural by-products such as EFB fibre may be used as an alternative for producing CBFB. Compatibility assessment for physical and mechanical properties of Cement-Bonded Fibreboard (CBFB) made of Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) is important to identify the suitability of incorporating EFB into CBFB. However, there are known compatibility issues between EFB fibre with cement mixtures as the fibres contain residual oil and sugar that inhibit cement setting and hydration. Besides that, the geometry of fibre has been said to be a factor that affects the physical and mechanical properties of CBFB. Hence, this study was conducted to carry out the compatibility assessments to improve the properties of Empty Fruit Bunch Cement Board (EFB-CB) besides to identify the role of fibre length in the mechanical and physical properties. Two compatibility assessments which include alkaline treatment by using sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) and cement accelerators which is Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) and Magnesium Chloride (MgCl2) were carried out on EFB-CB fabrications. The fabrication of EFB-CB specimens was done by incorporating EFB fibres with different lengths classified as R7M, R14M and R80M to establish findings on the effect of fibre length on EFB-CB. The research finding shows that the combination of EFB fibre size with distributions of 35%, 45% and 20% for R7M, R14M and R80M respectively is the optimum fibre length that can be used for further research. Whereas the finding on the compatibility assessment shows the requirements for the physical and mechanical properties were met after subjecting EFB-CB to 1% NaOH treatment for EFB fibre along with the addition of 0.3% CaCl2 or 0.4% MgCl2 as cement accelerators. Similar requirements were fulfilled for EFB fibres treated with 4% NaOH with or without cement accelerators. The results indicated that EFB fibre can be regarded as a potential replacement material used in the manufacturing of CFB for non-load bearing applications after it had gone through compatibility improvement methods.