Abstract:
Coconut is a most essential food item in Sri Lanka. After getting the coconut, the
coconut husk can be used to produce couple of products which can be compostable in
environmental friendly. The long fibres of coir are extracted from the coconut husk and
utilized in the manufacture of brushes, automobile seats and mattress stuffing, drainage
pipe filters, and other products. Traditionally, the short fibres and dust left behind have
accumulated as a waste product for which no industrial use had been discovered. Sri
Lanka has become the leading processor of what had previously been considered a waste
product into a form suitable for horticultural use. At the present, coir sector of the
coconut industry is looking for expanding existing market by exploring new applications
of coir fibres. One of the key strategies the industry identified is the high level of local
value addition in Sri Lanka. This will lead to higher foreign exchange earnings and
better wages in the sector.Therefore, the objective of this research work is to study the
use of coir fibre as a thermal insulation material for low temperature usage. This value
addition increases huge potential of coir as a material in the market where sustainability
is emerging as a key factor in specifying and purchasing materials. In this study, coir
composites are exclusively developed by coir fibre with an addition of latex, pith and
then along. The composite samples are prepared by different compression ratios and
tested for their thermal conductivity within low temperature range from 0 to 90°C. The
experimental results show that thermal conductivity of coir composites decreases with
increasing the compression ratio and its value becomes closer to the thermal
conductivity of the glass wool, which most widely used insulator in many applications
in spite of their harmfulness to human and the environment.
