Production of Particleboard from Wheat Straw

Wheat straw is a largely available and cheap agricultural residue. Field burning is the major conventional practice for removing wheat straw, but it increases the air pollution and consequently affects the public health. China has already banned open field burning. The aim of the present work was to investigate the suitability of wheat straw as a raw material for particleboard. Polyisocyanate resin was used as binder. Orthogonal experiment design was used. The variables studied and their respective variation ranges were: hot-press temperature, 180~200°C; hot-press time, 3~7 min; resin application ratio, 4~6%, wax application ratio, 0. 4~1.0%. The optimum manufacture condition was 190°C for hot-press temperature, 5 min for hot-press time, 6% for resin application ratio, 0.7% for wax application ratio. Under the optimum condition, 12.3 Mpa of the modulus of rupture, 0.33 Mpa of the internal bond and 4.5% of the thickness swell were obtained, higher than the requirement of JIS A 5908.