Title
Production of useful composite particleboard from waste orange peel
Authors
H. MEHMET TASDEMIR ALPAY SAHIN AHMET F. KARABULUT and METIN GURU

Received September 18, 2018
Published Volume 53 Issue 5-6 May-June
Keywords polymeric composite particleboard, three point bending test, limiting oxygen index, recycling of agricultural wastes, orange peel

Abstract
In this study, polymeric composite particleboard has been manufactured from orange peel, which is an abundant and promising agricultural waste in Turkey. An urea-formaldehyde (95 wt%) and phenol-formaldehyde (5% wt) mixture was used as polymeric binder and waste orange peel as a filler for the production of particleboard. The effect of polymeric binder/filler ratio on the tensile strength, limit oxygen index and water absorption capacity of the composite materials were determined. The molding temperature and pressure were set to 120 °C and 2 Mton, respectively. The highest tensile strength was obtained as 15 MPa at an equal polymer/orange peel ratio. Both mechanical strength and LOI (limiting oxygen index) values increased with increasing polymeric binder amount in the particleboard. However, water absorption capacity values decreased from 0.35 g water/g material to 0.16 g water/g material, with increasing amount of the polymeric binder. Considering the properties of the developed polymeric composite material, it can be concluded that orange peel waste can be used as a filler to replace wood-based materials in the production of particleboard.