Potential Of Using Rice Husk In Particleboard Production Ajikashile et al.

POTENTIAL OF USING RICE HUSK IN PARTICLEBOARD PRODUCTION

Ajikashile, J.O *, Ige, H. O and Ikpe, M. G
Department of agricultural and Bio-Environmental Engineering Technology, Samaru College of Agriculture,
Division of Agricultural Colleges, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
Corresponding email: oluwayinkajoshua@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
This research study was aimed at investigating the suitability of rice husk (RH) as alternative to wood
based particleboard composite using recycled low density polyethylene (RLDPE) as a binder. The
particleboards were produced at RH: RLPDE resin ratios of 50:50, 40:60, 30:70, 20:80, 10:90 and 0:100
%wt. The physical properties of the boards that were examined include water absorption (WA at 12hrs
and 24hrs), density, thickness swelling rate and visual observation. The result showed that the values
of the water absorption (at 12hrs and 24hrs) and thickness swelling decreases with increase in RLDPE
content of the particleboard produced. The maximum values of 17% and 50.45% for water adsorption at
50:50 of RH: RLDPE resin and minimum values of 10.45% and 39.48% at 0:100 of RH: RLDPE resin at 12hrs
and 24hrs respectively, while a maximum of 10.0% at 50:50 of RH: RLDPE resin and minimum of 5.23% at
0:100 of RH: RLDPE resin for thickness swelling rate. However, the density of the board produced
increases linearly with increase in RLDPE content. The maximum was found at 100% RLDPE, which is
0.90g/cm3 and minimum being 0.65g/cm3 at 50:50 of RH: RLDPE resin. The visual observation indicate a
uniform distribution of the rice husk particles and the RLDPE, this shows that increasing RLDPE
improved the density and resistant to water absorption of particleboard. The results meet the
properties requirements of the European standards for the general purpose like paneling, ceiling,
partioning etc. Hence rice husk particles as well as recycled low density polythene always found
littering in our society or the mixture can be used as a substitute to wood-based particleboard.
Keyword: Particleboard, Rice husk (RH), RLDPE, water absorption, thickness swelling rate and density

INTRODUCTION emission of carbon compounds into the

Industrialization and urbanization has ever
been on the increase in developing countries and
globally, the construction industry is growing at a
rapid pace as a consequence of increasing
population and standard of living. This has caused
great havoc to our environment as a result of the
increasing demand for wood and wooden products.
When forestlands are depleted, the agrochemical
circles are negatively affected especially the carbon
cycle, since nature depends on plants to reduce the
amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and
when they are not in the environment as a result of
man’s activities and his demand for wood, carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere tends to increase,
thereby resulting in the rising temperature of the
biosphere. It is believed that this could
subsequently result in the melting of polar ice caps,
which in turn will cause sea levels to rise; this will
cause the world coastal town to become
submersible in water.
Another endangering activity of man to the
environment is the burning of waste, which include
industrial, agricultural, domestic waste to mention
but a few – and of course, nothing is a waste until it
is wasted.
It is therefore everyone’s concern to seek
for the best possible solutions to reduce the
Proceedings of the 1st International conference on Drylands
atmosphere. On major way to achieve this is
maximizing the potentials in the so-called
agricultural and domestic waste such as rice husk
and the recycled low density polyethylene (RLDPE),
commonly known in Nigeria as pure water sachet.
Rice is a major food crop in many regions of
the world. Global rice production in 2007 was
approximately 638 million tonnes and Nigeria
contribution was 3.5 million metric tonnes (Umeh
and Ataborh, 2004). Due to global demand, rice
production is expected to grow from year to year.
Rice husk is the outer covering of the rice grain and
is obtained during the milling process. RH
constitutes 20% of the total rice produced (Giaccio,
et al., 2007). As a renewable material, the use of RH
can eliminate waste disposal and support
environmental protection. Even though Nigeria is
not a prominent rice-producing country, large
quantities of RH are produced every year after the
harvest season. On the same note, almost every
nook and cranny in Nigeria is littered with sachet
water nylon, popularly called “pure water”, the
large volume of which in ordinary parlance,
constitutes pollution and termed negative
externality.
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Potential Of Using Rice Husk In Particleboard Production
This is as a result of millions of used sachets being
thrown on daily basis onto the streets of virtually
every city, town, and village in Nigeria, (Babatunde
and Biala, 2010). As noted by Edoga et al. (2008),
about 70 percent of Nigerian adults drink at least a
sachet of pure water per day resulting in about 50
to 60 million used water-sachets disposed daily
across the country.
The use of renewable biomass as a raw
material in composites production is an approach
and the use of renewable biomass may result in
several benefits such as environmental and socio-
economic (Younquist et al., 1994). Today renewable
biomass are mostly accepted as waste materials and
are mostly ploughed into the soil or burnt in the
field. According to the end uses of wood-wastes and
their possible reuse products, particleboard has
found typical applications as flooring, wall and
ceiling panels, office dividers, bulletin boards,
furniture, cabinets, counter tops, and desk tops
(MacCleery, 1995; Chew et al., 1991), and it seems
that the manufacture of particleboard from biomass
wastes is the most common way to reuse such
Figure 1: Photograph of RLDPE
The rice husk used for this study was obtained from
Samaru Market, Sabon Gari Local Government Area,
Kaduna State, Nigeria (Figure 2), which was cleaned
of foreign particles and milled into smaller particles.
Equipments used for the experiment include:
electric weighing balance, Hydraulic press, two-roll-
meal variable compressing machine, metal mould,
hydraulic press, grinding and polishing machine, and
sieve.
Fig 2: Picture of the Rice Husk sieved particles
st
Proceedings of the 1 International conference on Drylands
Ajikashile et al.,
waste materials (Kuo et al., 1998; Younquist et al.,
1994).
Today chemical pulp and panel products
using wheat straw and other crop residues are
being commercially manufactured in a number of
countries (Hall et al, 1984). Although research works
has been intensified recently in Nigeria to actualize
the useful use of agricultural by-products the
country, a larger part of this agricultural by-product
is burnt or disposed, thus representing an
environmental problem. Therefore, the aim of this
study is to investigate the potential utilization of
rice husk and RLDPE both as binder and as
alternative material in particleboard production as
supplement and to alleviate the shortage of raw
material in forest industry.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The waste polythene bags (RLDPE) were
collected within the institution (Ahmadu Bello
University) environment. The polythene bags were
washed thoroughly to remove debris and substance
that may stand as impurity, dried and cut into small
sizes (Figure 1).
The particle size analysis of the rice husk particles
was carried out in accordance with ASTM E290
(1990). 100g of the particles was placed unto a set
of sieves arranged in descending order of fineness
and shaken for 15 minutes to achieve complete
classification, the particle that passed through the
200μm sieve was considered in this study (Figure 2)
42
Potential Of Using Rice Husk In Particleboard Production Ajikashile et al.,

The processed rice husk and polythene were taken Density =

to polymer recycling laboratory in Nigeria Institute
of Leather and Science Technology (NILEST),
Samaru Zaria, for production of particleboard. The 1
instrumentation used for the board production The values of the water absorption (WA) as
were two-roll mill, hydraulic press, moulds and percentages were calculated using equation 2 (BSI,
laboratory weighing balance. Particleboard 2003).
production was achieved by compounding the rice
husk and polythene which serves as a binder (a
suitable replacement for resin), at specified ratios,
in an electrically heated two roll mill at a 2
temperature of 150oC into a homogenous mixture as Where: is the water absorption (%) at time t,
paste. Then the hot paste was transferred to the
hydraulic press in a rectangular metal molds with a is the initial weight, and is the weight of the
cavity to accommodate the board composite
samples. Also, the hydraulic press is electrically
sample at a given time t, of immersion.
heated and operated at a temperature of 150 and The thickness swelling of specimens was evaluated.
Specimens cut into dimensions of 50 mm x 50mm
at pressure of 10MPa. The hydraulic press was used and known thickness (centre thickness) were place
to shape the sample, taking the shape of the metal in a parallel orientation in water and soaked for
mould with dimensions 14 x 11 x 4cm (Fig. 2). This 24hrs. The Thickness swelling rate (TS) was
procedure was used to produce particleboard from determined from the following formula (BSI, 1993).
other samples based on the RH: RLDPE resin ratio
(by weight) and repeated three times in each case.
Some physical properties of the board were
determined; density, thickness swelling rate and 3
water absorption including visual observation. The Where: TS is the thickness swelling rate (%), and
basic method of determining density by measuring
the mass and volume of the sample was used. A
are the thickness at the middle of the test
clean sample was weighed in air using a laboratory
weighing balance, then submerged in water, and
the weight of water displaced is weighed. The specimen.
density of the sample was then estimated from
equation below (BSI, 1993):

(a) (b)
Fig. 3: Samples of particleboard from agro-waste;
(a) 50:50wt% of RH: RLDPE resin (b) 0:100wt% of RH: RLDPE resin.

Proceedings of the 1st International conference on Drylands

43
Potential Of Using Rice Husk In Particleboard Production Ajikashile et al.,

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The mean values of density, thickness swelling rate, and water absorption at 12hrs and 24hrs are presented in
Table1.

Table 1: Physical properties of particleboards

RH: RLDPE resin Water absorption Water absorption Thickness swelling Density
%wt @12hrs (%) @24hrs (%) @24hrs (%) (g/cm3)
50:50 17.00 50.45 10.00 0.65
40:60 15.78 47.00 9.80 0.70
30:70 14.92 45.67 9.80 0.75
20:80 13.63 43.37 7.53 0.80
10:90 12.41 41.39 6.98 0.85
0:100 10.45 39.48 5.23 0.90

The physical properties of the particle
boards were found to be a function of the wt% of
RLDPE used in the production of particle board.
Plotting the values of these properties against wt%
of RLDPE resin, the relationship were best described
using polynomial and linear functions. The
equations have very high coefficients of
determination (R2 > 0.9) which indicated that they
described the relationships reasonably.
The result (Fig. 3) shows that water absorption
property of the board decreases with increase in
wt% of the RLDPE resin indicating a negative effect
of high proportion of rice husk (RH) particle in the
mixture. This is expected as RH has a high solubility
value compared to RLDPE resin. Similar result was
obtained for the thickness swelling (TS) of the
particle board (Fig. 4). The TS decreases with
increase in RLDPE resin. Idris et al (2011) and Ntalos
and Grigoriou (2002) reported similar result in their
works.

Fig. 3: Variation of Water Absorption with RLDPE resin

Fig. 4: Variation of Thickness Swelling with RLDPE resin

Proceedings of the 1st International conference on Drylands

44
Potential Of Using Rice Husk In Particleboard Production
The density variation of the particle board was
found to increase with increase in RLDPE resin (Fig.
5). Similar result was reported by Idris et al., (2011).
Wasylciw (1999) stated that density profile of a
.
Fig 5: Variation of Density with RLDPE resin
Visual observation of the board after production
reveals uniform distribution of the RH with the
RLDPE resin binder in the macro structure of the
particleboard.
CONCLUSION
Particle board was produced from rice husk an
agro-waste and recycled low density polyethylene
resin (RLDPE resin) a domestic waste as binder.
Physical properties of the board were determined.
The results show that:
i. The density increased as the percentage of
the resin increases in the particles.
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Proceedings of the 1st International conference on Drylands
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RECOMMENDATIONS
Research is still needed to be intensified in this area
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