Reuse of banana fiber and peanut shells for the design of new prefabricated products for buildings

Abstract

This work presents a sustainable panel elaboration for housing interiors through banana fiber and peanut shells gathered from crop residues, consolidated with a polyester resin binder. A material characterization process was defined by forming three prototypes with different dosages. The prototypes performed physical and mechanical tests following recommendations from previous research and the standards. The results obtained were favorable regarding thermal trans-mittance percentages, achieving an average resistance comparable to non-structural medium density particleboard (MDP). Performance comparisons were also established, which depict the potential of these prototypes to contribute to the building industry, including the development of thermally comfortable environments.