Paper Title
OPTIMISATION OF PROCESS PARAMETERS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREEN COMPOSITE CEILING BOARD FROM CHICKEN FEATHER AND SAWDUST

Abstract
Abstract - The health hazards associated with the use of asbestos materials in construction led to the ban of its use in July 1989 by the Environmental Protective Agency (EPA) in the United States and other countries, giving rise to the quest for alternatives. In this study, the method of using sawdust and chicken feather particles to develop green composite ceiling board with epoxy resin as the binder was examined in response to the waste-to-wealth efforts aimed at producing eco-friendly construction materials. Response surface methodology (RSM) based on Box-Behnken design of experiment (three factors of three levels – 33) was used to analyze the effects of material concentration, curing time (CT), and temperature (TC) on the flexural rigidity, density, water absorption, and thermal properties of the ceiling board. The results underwent analysis of variance (ANOVA) testing to evaluate the significance of each process parameter. These showed that sawdust-chicken feather (SD/CF) concentration is the most significant factor influencing the physico-mechanical properties of the developed green ceiling boards, followed by curing time and temperature (in that order). The optimal thermal stability using ASTM E1131-20 was obtained from an SD/CF concentration of 55%wt cured at 200oC for 120 minutes. This work proves useful in determining the best method and values for different process factors that would enhance the quality of the ceiling board. Keywords - Wastes, Bio-composite, Ceiling board, Box Behnken, Optimization