Residential housing is a critical aspect of human living and in developing countries this is a mirage due to high cost of building materials. In order to meet the needs for affordable housing with low cost materials as well as meet required fire safety standards, this research developed flame retarded fibreboards with oil palm residue reinforced in polyester resin, incorporating 0, 12 and 18% flame retardant loading using hand lay-up compression moulding. The fibreboards were tested for impact, thermal and flammability properties. Based on experiments, it was found that 12% aluminum tri-hydroxide fibreboard meets the impact and thermal limitations while the 18% hybrid formulation meets the required fire safety standard for building interior applications which will benefit rural dwellers in Nigeria and in similar climes around the world seeking to substitute conventional materials with the advantage of low cost, easy to process, biodegradable, environmentally benign and flame retarded composite material.

Summary Wood‐based polymer composites represent a growing interest in the building industry. The fire response of this composite type is a concern to many end users. This study utilizes wood sawdust as reinforcement to develop flame retarded wood sawdust polyester composite (WSPC) panel. Flame retardant (FR) chemicals such as aluminium tri‐hydroxide (ATH), intumescent FR (ammonium polyphosphate [APP] Gum Arabic Powder [GAP]), and the combination of ATH and APP‐GAP (hybrid) at 0%, 12%, and 18% were used to modify the WSPC panel using hand lay‐up compression moulding technique. Tensile and flexural properties, thermal and flammability properties, and macroscopic image observations (MIOs) were examined using universal testing machine, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA/DSC), and the cone calorimeter apparatus (CCA), respectively. The results obtained show that the added nonhybrid FR in the WSPC panel enhanced the tensile and flexural strength while a reduction in the tensile modulus was observed. In the thermal stability, TGA analysis reveals that the added hybrid FR did not exhibit significant change in the thermal stability of the WSPC panel while cone calorimeter results show significant improvement in some fire properties. It can be concluded that the hybrid FR when incorporated in WSPC panel can be of great benefit to the building industry.

Summary Oil palm fibre reinforced polyester composite (OPFC) was modified with aluminium tri‐hydroxide (ATH), ammonium phosphate and gum arabic (APP‐GAP) intumescent compound, and their hybrid (ATH/APP‐GAP) flame retardants (FRs) at 0%, 12%, and 18% proportion using hand lay‐up compression moulding technique. The effect of the FR loadings on impact strength, flammability properties, and flame propagation were examined using an impact tester, cone calorimeter apparatus (CCA), and flame spread apparatus (FSA), respectively. The results shows that the FRs added to OPFC enhanced the impact strength of the composite showing greater absorbed energy for 0%OPFC and 12%APP‐GAP specimens. CCA results reveal that 18%ATH/APP‐GAP hybrid specimen enhanced the flammability properties better at 50 kW m−2, while at 25 kW m−2, the performance of the specimens varied in properties with content and type of FR loadings. FSA results reveal that with 18%ATH/APP‐GAP hybrid specimen, weakest flame energy for propagation and less flame travel distance could be achieved and suggests a better FR. This paper concludes that the hybrid FR specimen can be of great benefit to the building and transportation industries.

Agro-waste fibres (AWFs) are of very reasonable economic value and have attracted a lot of research interest globally. AWFs have significant potential in composites due to low cost, high strength, environmental benign nature, availability, and sustainability. Nevertheless, dozens of the investigations have failed to give the desired attention of the fire behaviour of AWF composite materials when exposed to heat atmosphere. In this chapter, a detailed account of AWF composite material combustion process was discussed to understand the reason for the high heat release rates (HRR) caused by cellulosic content. HRR is a critical component of the flammability properties of AWF composite materials as the fire behaviour largely depends on it. The prospective examination of AWF composite material fire behaviour gives the required direction about the limits of their utilization and developmental trends for future industrial applications in Nigeria.