Extrusion fractionation of wheat straw for biocomposites utilising the entire straw constituents

This paper reports work in the extrusion fractionation of wheat straw and biocomposites utilising the entire constituents of straw. The effects of pre-treatment and extrusion conditions on fractionation of straw and mechanical properties of the biocomposites were studied systematically. It is demonstrated that twin screw extrusion can be used for effective fractionation of straw feedstock for production of biocomposites utilising the natural resin and fibre reinforcement without additional polymeric resin. In comparison with the conventional approaches where cellulose is extracted and compounded with resins, the self-reinforced biocomposites benefit from low material and processing costs as well as lower environmental impacts.