Durability and resistance of eco-friendly particleboards produced from agroforestry residues

The aim to evaluate the raw material (agroforestry residues) for particleboard manufacture from the: pseudostem of Musa paradisiaca ; the stem and pods of Theobroma cacao ; and the sawdust of Ceiba pentandra . The particleboards produced from these cellulosic residues are mixed with cassava starch’s natural adhesive and urea formaldehyde’s synthetic adhesive. The results indicate that lignin, α-cellulose, hemicellulose, and extractives ranged from 6.2–19.0%, 41.4–50.2%, 24.4–31.5%, and 6.8–18.8% respectively and they were significantly different from each other. Additionally, tannins, alkaloids, saponins, flavonoids, phenols, glycosides, and sterols were the phytochemicals present in biomass materials in different quantities. Also, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and boron were the elementals significantly present in the manufactured particleboards in the range of 35.3–52.8, 30.2–43.0, 4.2–24.0, and 3.2–9.9 percentage concentration respectively. As for the mechanical properties, it was verified that the cellulose content influenced 96.5% of the variability of the modulus of rupture (MOR) values. Understanding the distribution, functional properties, and impact of biomass organic, phytochemicals and elemental constitutions is an impetus to the improvement of processes with higher retention of these constitutions in the utilization of agroforest residues in the particleboard industry. These chemical compositions of the residues under study contributed largely to the characteristics of the manufactured particleboards.