One more question: is your interest finding suitable MDF boards made of straw (or a way to make them yourself), or do you want to find good uses for straw?
The reason I'm asking is that there are very interesting technologies for converting the cellulose of straw into sugars, and from there into vitamin C, vanilla flavor and other substances. If anybody is interested, I could send you more info.
I am looking for alternatives to process agricultural waste, particularly rice straws because they are plenty of those straws within my area. If you have any input, that will be great. But it seems that converting to strawboard might be one of the cheapest way to use those straws.
Any ideas are certainly welcome.
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Hi Patricio and others,
Just searched google for IMAGES with the keywords _mdf +bamboo_ (eliminate the underscores) and got some interesting results. Ok, among the first there was my avatar with my silly grin and the bossy face of my youngest grandson, but then it got really interesting.
One website that got my attention describes how to produce bamboo mdf. Here is the link: http://images.google.com.mx/imgres?imgurl=http://sres-associated.anu.edu.au/fpt/mdf/manufacture.gif&imgrefurl=http://sres-associated.anu.edu.au/fpt/mdf/manufacture.html&h=674&w=602&sz=13&hl=es&start=104&sig2=YKGvG-n0t4BQ8irrjT0I7A&tbnid=dEfV3wZlzzxpwM:&tbnh=138&tbnw=123&ei=kWplR7HwLIOkeOan3Es&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmdf%2B%252Bbamboo%26start%3D100%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Des%26sa%3DN
A little long, huh? Anyway, the pictures also give you great clues regarding the possible uses and designs of bamboo articles. Have a look!
Uwe
Quoting from [germex Germex, Is Rice Husk similar to Rice Straw? A china supplier sold me some products of which the main MDF material is made of Rice Husk glued together. The quality is really very bad, the MDF board tends to warp easily and it degrades rather quickly. Our country is a big producer of rice so there is also a lot of rice by products lying around (husk etc). Somebody actually started to collect them with the end of goal of turning them into MDF substitututes but they were very unsuccessful. I believe the product required a lot of glue which made the cost rather prohibitive in the end. Also there were quality issues although I am not sure if they were similar to the one I experienced with the MDF's I bought from China
Rice straw should be similar to wheat straw, but rice husks are a totally different story. They are those little shells that protect the individual grain.
Boards of wheat straw (and possibly also of rice straw) are made by compressing packs of straw under heat. The substances in the stalks (straw) are all the glue you need for this purpose. To make boards of rice husks you would need a glue indeed, so they don't make much sense.
What you could do with rice husks is using them as a loose insulating infill in walls that consist of two shells and a hollow space. Fill this void with husks, and you'll have a terrific insulation that would hardly compact over time.
Another use is burning rice husks to generate energy. If the burning process is carried out very carefully, you'll obtain an extremely fine ash that contains less than 1% of carbon. This ash can then be used as a "pozzolan", an additive that enhances the properties of concrete and mortar.
Few years ago I wrote a "paper" about the subject of pozzolans. It shoud be found at http://ferrocement.net/ferro/files/pozzolans-uwe.html, but for some reason the page was done when I looked a moment ago. Will notify the site owner. In any case, soon cyber chap or Ranger will post it somewhere on a public website and publish the link here.
As the Phillipines are not known for an extreme climate, using the husks as an insulation might not be very interesting. Therefore I would say use them as a means to generate energy and a pozzolan.
My dear friend
Looking for production lineMDF
Of rice strawQuoting from [germex]:
Have a look at this link about MDF (medium density fiber board) made of bamboo and rice straw.
http://remodeling.hw.net/industry-news.asp?sectionID=157&articleID=534415
If you want to establish your own production line you'll need the help of a very competent fabricator or similar.
Also google for "Rastra". They once built a plant, and the only reason it didn't prosper was that they had problems among the shareholders, but the technology was ok.
Basically you press the individual straws together under high pressure and heat (wirh steam, I believe). This way the (small) contents of... (protein?) becomes sticky and glues everything together.
Don't think you'll find a supplier who already has it all worked out, but apparently it isn't too difficult. - Good luck!