Novel fibers preparation technique for manufacturing of rice straw based fiberboards and their characterization

• The paper introduces a novel rice straw fibers preparation technique for manufacturing of fiberboards.
• Rice straw has been used with UF resin for manufacturing of rice straw-based medium density fiberboards.
• The new technique is based only on mechanical method without any pretreatment.
• The produced fiberboards properties met the MDF standard requirements.

The present work introduces a novel fibers preparation technique for manufacturing of dry-formed rice straw based medium density fiberboard (RSMDF). The properties and the quality of the produced RSMDF were evaluated. The technique is based only on a mechanical method without pretreatment (wetting and chemical additives) before defiberation to loosen up the straw structure as usually followed in the conventional processes. The components of the manufacturing system were especially designed and fabricated. The commercial urea–formaldehyde UF resin was used as binder in manufacturing of the RSMDF. Different content levels of the conventional UF resin (16%, 18% and 19%) were targeted. The RSMDF was produced at different thicknesses (7 mm, 9 mm and 16 mm) and average densities in the range of 728–941 kg/m3. The RSMDF mechanical properties (internal bond (IB), modulus of rupture (MOR) and modulus of elasticity (MOE)) and thickness swilling (TS) were measured and analyzed as a function of density and resin content. The results revealed that, the properties of the produced fiberboards are dependent on the average density and the resin contents. The RSMDF panels were produced successfully using the new rice straw fibers preparation technique and their properties met the requirements of MDF standard.