Development of corn-based biomass composite board.

Abstract

As the result of greater environmental awareness, the demand for environmentally friendly materials is significantly raised. Therefore, the interest in composites based on renewable-resources has grown (Mohanty et al, 2000 and Toriz et al, 2003) Because petrochemical-based plastic material persists beyond its functional life, a waste disposal problem is facing modem society. Research to alleviate pollution and litter problems includes efforts to develop plastics that degrade more rapidly in the environment. Corn Board is green technology because it traps C02, Typically, when biomass is left to decompose in the field, the C02 previously captured and consumed by the growing plant is released back into the atmosphere. Conversely, when the corn stover is made into Corn Board, the C02 is "trapped' in the material. Sequestering C02 in Corn board alleviates the contribution of the decomposing biomass towards. an increase of C02 in the atmosphere. In this research project, I developed a composite board to be used in civil. applications; low stressed mechanical -and recreational work in manufacture of skateboards. A hand laying process was used simply because it is cheap, clean and flexible and requires little expertise. Composite boards were tested for the mechanical properties, flexural and tensile. The material exhibited low tensile strength at low material density but as the density was increased from 0.7 to 0.8 the tensile strength increased and almost tripled from 0.70.6MPa. to 2.286MPa The material also had a flexural strength of 8.805N and 12.479N with densities of 0.7 and 0.8 respectively.