The development of sugarcane biocomposite for household product design application / Shahril Safian

“Saccharum Officinarum” or (yellow cane) contributes to mass food production industries. The use of this plant had become popular for mass production, for example in raw sugar and juice production in Malaysia and the disposals of sugarcane produces two-component that are bagasse and pith (BP). Unfortunately, BP had become an issue due to the increased use of bins. As BP bio composite has potential in design use especially for mass manufacturing of product application hence this will reduce the number of bins used for disposal purpose. In Malaysia, BP biocomposite potential in mass manufacturing has been identified such as for producing flat particleboard. Moreover, several BP bio composite areas of use in mass production for industry design manufacturing area namely automotive component, toys manufacturing, packaging design, and product application production. In addition, examples of the technologies applied to manufacture process in the large-scale factory are hot press, injection moulding, and cool press. A new development besides these three processes is using Hot Air Moulding Template (HAMP), which is suitable for use in manufacturing household craft using BP biocomposite. Furthermore, laboratory tests are conducted, for example on water absorption, thickness swelling, and flexure test. As an expected outcome, this BP biocomposite can use as a potential towards of product design application. These will be referring to Life Cycle Assessment Framework (LCA) as a guideline on BP biocomposite mass manufacturing for household craft product application before it will be ready to be produced.