Heat Transfer Efficiency and pMDI Curing Behavior during Hot-Pressing Process of Tea Oil Camellia (Camellia Oleifera Abel.) Shell Particleboard

The use of agricultural biomass composites as new construction and building materials has grown rapidly in recent decades. Considering that energy consumption is one of the most important factors in production, the aim of this work is to examine how heat transfer is affected at various ratios and combinations of three-layer tea oil camellia shell (TOCS) based particleboard with the purpose of creating a mat-forming structure, which has the best physical and mechanical properties for furniture and construction use in a dry environment and consumes the least amount of energy. Additionally, it investigated how raw materials type affects the curing process of polymeric methylene diisocyanate (pMDI) using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). According to the obtained data, the centerline temperature could reach a maximum of 125 °C after 3 min regardless of the materials or combinations, while the pMDI curing time was 100–110 °C. The results demonstrated that efficient heat transfer could help resin polymerization and improve panel properties. The effect of raw materials on the curing behavior of resin indicated that TOCS particles somehow caused more heat reactions at the curing point. It appeared that particleboard with a ratio of 40% commercial wood particles in the surface layers and 50% TOCS particles (mesh size: −3 + 14) in the core layer with a modulus of rupture (MOR) of 11.29 N/mm(2) and internal bonding (IB) of 0.78 N/mm(2) has the best properties and met EN 312: 2010 standard requirements for particleboard P2.