Abstract:
Panel industry is growing at 20.25% largely due to shift in consumer’s preference for Medium
Density Fibre board (MDF). Medium-Density Fibreboard Market estimates that the market for
MDF reached a value of more than US$ 22 Billion in 2017. The demand for MDF in India is
1600-1800 cbm per day. Since wood raw material is becoming scarce, there is a need to source
raw material from other available resources. In India huge quantity of agricultural residue is
generated every year. On the other side in the absence of assured returns, farmers find burning is
an economic way of managing the agro waste. Burning of straw emits gases like carbon dioxide,
methane, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, sulphur oxide which adversely affect human health
as well as the environment. Hence instead of burning, use of agro waste for value addition would
replace wood in MDF manufacture and thus save valuable trees in forest or outside. Although
some breakthroughs have already been made in this direction by previous workers some
enhancements in the strength properties have been envisaged through the present investigation.
Wheat straw contains 4-6 percentage of Silica. The percentage of silica varies depending on the
source of wheat grown. Wheat straw with alkali treatment (0.1 and 0.3%) on the weight of
wheat straw was studied for the manufacturing of MDF. MDF panels were made using (10 and
12%) Urea formaldehyde resin, phenol formaldehyde resin and Melamine urea formaldehyde
resin and tested as per IS 12406-2003 “Specification for MDF for General Purpose”. The
chemical and physical characteristics of alkali treated and untreated wheat straw fibres
investigations reveals that the, ash content decreased with the removal of dust and increased
alkali treatment. Wheat straw fibre board without alkali treatment can be successfully made
using MUF resin and with 0.1% alkali treated using PF resin. The product developed conforms
to requirements for MDF as specified in IS-12406-2003 standards for PF and MUF bonded
boards. These results indicate that MDF can be made from fibre derived from wheat straw.
