Inspection of Pineapple Leaf Fibers Extraction to Be Used in Construction Industry

Abstract

This paper presents the possibility of using pineapple leaf fibers (PALF) in construction industry. In this study each leaf of the plant of pineapple contained 2.5% to 3.5% of strong white silky fibers. PALF were extracted from the pineapple leaves after harvesting the fruit. An average of the three ages, 1month, 2months and 3months was 30 units of pineapple leaves weighed 3 kg for each age. The reported fiber yield of 1month, 2months and 3months were about 6.64 %, 7.48% and 7.70% of fibers respectively. The extraction of 100 kg of leaves yielded 6 kg of the PALF by the process of shredding using the mechanical methods. the reason for overwhelming attention on the natural resources materials are due to large scale agricultural production annually in the world market for example, pineapple is the most cultivated fruits in Africa. Pineapple fruit is cultivated in the world wide approximately land area of 2.2 million km2. 600 thousand tons of PALF can be extracted from agro waste leaves after harvesting of the fruits, Pineapple leaves are not even suitable for cattle feed and after harvest of fruits the disposal of leaves becomes a serious environmental problem. Therefore this research aim is focused on reducing the waste disposed to landfills by extracting the leaves of pineapple.