BioResources, Vol 3, No 4 (2008)

POTENTIAL OF USING ANAEROBICALLY DIGESTED BOVINE BIOFIBER AS A FIBER SOURCE FOR WOOD COMPOSITES

Jerrold Everett Winandy, Zhiyong Cai

Abstract


Manure, an animal waste product with many negative economic and environmental issues, can today be converted using anaerobic digestion technology into a number of commercial products ranging from fertilizer, compost, animal bedding, and plant bedding. A number of new uses are now being explored such as bioenergy (both electrical and biofuel) and a lignocellulose-rich potential feedstock for engineered biocomposite products for building materials. This paper explores the engineering potential of using anaerobically digested bovine biomass (ADBF) as a feedstock material for biocomposite building materials. Our evaluation generally indicated that making dry-formed fiberboard using up to a 50/50% mixture of wood fiber and ADBF-fiber compared favorably with some commercial requirements for wood-based medium-density fiberboard and particleboard.

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