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

This paper presents an experimental study to investigate sustainable alternative ceiling boards using PKS and 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 (A1, A2, A3 and A4), (B1, B2, B3 and B4), and (C1, C2, C3 and C4) respectively. The samples were cast by flat press process in rectangular sheet shape mould of 187 mm × 125 mm × 3 mm, cut into specimen sizes of 30 mm × 40 mm then tested for dry shrinkage, water absorption, apparent porosity, bulk density, flaking, and hardness properties. The morphology of the samples was examined using SEM. Results of the analysis show that irrespective of the filler loadings the properties of PKS / binder particularly at 20/80 ratio ‘‘B1” displayed better dry shrinkage of 3.7%; water absorption of 12.4%; apparent porosity of 15%; bulk density of 2.3 g/cm3; flaking of 0.05 g and hardness of 57.6 Hv which approximates those of the conventional specimen with better physical properties compared to BS/binder at 20/80 ratio ‘‘A1” and PKS/BS/binder at 20/80 ratio ‘‘C1”. These results, therefore, suggest that PKS at 20/80 ratio with improved strength could be used as a sustainable alternative in the production of ceiling boards.