Development of washed cottonseed meal-based wood adhesives for industrial application

Authors: He, Zhongqi

Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/22/2018
Publication Date: 5/7/2018
Citation: He, Z. 2018. Development of washed cottonseed meal-based wood adhesives for industrial application. In:Proceedings of the 2018 Beltwide Cotton Conferences, January 3-5, 2018, San Antonio, Texas. p. 348-352.

Interpretive Summary: Defatted cottonseed meal-based adhesives have great potential as sustainable eco-friendly adhesives. We developed a novel meal product by water washing of the defatted cottonseed meal. The new product, washed cottonseed meal (WCSM), showed the adhesive performance comparable to cottonseed protein isolate. Washed cottonseed meal may be used as the conventional interior wood adhesives for nonstructural application. WCSM-based adhesive formulations were designed for bonding pencil sandwich slats. With appropriate bonding conditions, the pencil made from those bonded sandwiches passed the industrial temperature cycle test. Washed cottonseed meal can also be blended with synthetic resins to form hybrid adhesives. The blending can be used for improving either the operational conditions (such as with polyvinyl acetate) or water resistance and emission reduction (such as with urea formaldehyde).

Technical Abstract: Plant seed meal-based products can be used as green wood adhesives. We have tested the bonding performance of defatted cottonseed meal (CSM), water-washed cottonseed meal (WCSM), and cottonseed protein isolate (CSPI). CSM was cheap but showed poor water resistance. CSPI showed better adhesive performance, but it was expensive. WCSM, a new product we developed, possessed the adhesive strength comparable to CSPI, but it is more cost-efficient and environment-friendly than CSPI. To promote it as an industrial wood adhesives, WCSM was produced in a pilot-scale. The product was characterized in regards to chemical composition, physical properties and bonding strength in order to establish the quality standards in industrial production. Practical application of the pilot-produced WCSM product was explored. Per the experimental data, WCSM-based adhesives could be used as low-temperature glues for the domestic small utensils bonding (such as in pencil making), high-temperature adhesives for interior non-structural plywood making, and greener blending adhesive with urea formaldehyde resin for wood based composites production.