Isolation and characterization of soda lignin from OPEFB and evaluation of its performance as wood adhesive

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the mechanical properties of plywood panels that had been bound with lignin-phenol-formaldehyde (LPF) adhesive. LPF, composed of lignin that was extracted from Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch (OPEFB) fiber by soda pulping method and characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR), Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (HNMR), and Thermal Gravimetric Analyzer (TGA) analysis. Then, various compositions of soda lignin (10-50 wt %) were used as a phenol substitute in LPF synthesis. The characteristics of the synthesized adhesive were compared to the properties of phenol formaldehyde (PF) adhesive. Plywood was fabricated with LPF and its mechanical properties were studied and evaluated using industrial standards. The result indicates that the increase of phenol substitution with soda lignin, up to 40%, improves the mechanical properties of plywood. This research demonstrated the use of lignin as a renewable replacement of phenol in PF adhesive formulation.