Corn stalk from agricultural residue used as reinforcement fiber in fiber-cement production

In the last few years an increasing high interest has been drawn to the potential use of agricultural waste as raw material to produce structural reinforcement fibers for building materials, due to environmental and economical aspects. Corn is the world's most produced cereal in terms of quantity, what entails the generation of large quantities of waste. Despite this fact, only a few research works concerned with the use of fibers from waste corn stalks in the production of fiber-cement have been published and there is a complete lack of data on the characterization of these fibers. The objective of this research is to study the feasibility of using fibers obtained from corn stalk as reinforcement fibers in the production of fiber-cement through environmentally friendly cooking methods. This study encompasses the morphological characterization of the fibers and the study of the effects that the use of these fibers has on the flocculation, retention and drainage of the fiber-cement suspensions and on the mechanical and physical properties of the final product. The results obtained in the tests confirmed the high potential of the corn stalk as a source of fibers for the manufacture of a fiber-cement capable of meeting the requirements of demanding applications. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.