Sustainable Alternative Ceiling Boards using Palm Kernel Shell (PKS) and Balanite Shell (BS)

Abstract This paper presents an experimental study to investigate the sustainable alternativeceiling boards using Palm Kernel Shell (PKS) and Balanite Shell (BS). The ceiling boards were prepared by mixing (BS/binder, PKS/binder and PKS/BS/binder) at different ratios of (20/80, 40/60, 60/40 and 80/20) and represented as samples (A 1 , A 2 , A 3 and A 4 ), (B 1 , B 2 , B 3 and B 4 ) and (C 1 , C 2 , C 3 and C 4 ) respectively. The samples werecast by flat press process in rectangular sheet shape mould of 187mm x 125 mm x 3mm. The samples were cut into specimen sizes of 30 mm x 40 mm and tested for dry shrinkage, water absorption, apparent porosity, bulk density,flaking, and hardness properties. Morphology of the samples were examined using SEM. Results of the analysis show that irrespective of the filler loadings the properties of PKS / binder particularly at 20/80 ratio (B 1 ) displayed better dry shrinkage of 3.7 %; water absorption of 12.4 %; apparent porosity of 15 %; bulk density of 2.3 g/cm 3 ; flaking of 0.05g and hardness of 57.6 Hv which approximates those of the conventional specimen (Control) with a more better physical properties compared to BS / binder at 20/80 ratio (A 1 ) with dry shrinkage of 6.1 %; water absorption of 33 %; apparent porosity of 35 %; bulk density 1.2 g/cm 3 ; flaking of 0.36g; hardness of 26.2 Hv and PKS / BS / binder at 20/80 ratio (C 1 )with dry shrinkage of 9.8 %; water absorption of 30 %; apparent porosity of 32 %; bulk density 1.4 g/cm 3 ; flaking of 0.1g; hardness of 36.7 Hv. These results therefore suggest that PKS could be used as a sustainable alternative in the production of ceiling boards.