Effect of pressing time on the properties of particleboard made using glutaraldehyde-treated oil palm particle

Abstract

Oil palm biomass is an abundant source of material. Mass production of palm oil results in increasing amount of waste where roughly 4 kg of dry biomass is produced for each palm oil obtained, with a third is found in fresh fruit bunch (FFB) derived wastes. In contrast, the other two-thirds are represented by trunk and frond material. This problem might be a contribution to the increment of wastes production. One of the alternatives ways is to utilise the oil palm biomass by producing particleboard from oil palm trunk particles. This study was conducted to focus on the effect of pressing time on the properties of particleboard made using glutaraldehyde treated oil palm particle. The different pressing time used in this experiment was 10, 15 and 20 minutes. The made particleboards were tested for their physical and mechanical properties. Results found that the particleboard of 15 minutes pressing time particleboard has the highest value with 390.48 N/mm² and 2.61 N/mm² of MOE and MOR, respectively. Therefore, the 15 minutes pressing time is considered optimum to produce the particleboard with higher strength.