Bagasse has been used in biomaterial applications since a very long time ago. It has been used for interior panels and particleboard production. The first bagasse composition panel plant in Americas was built by Celotex, Louisiana, in 1920. Since then, more than 20 bagasse particle­board plants have been built throughout the world [135]. However, recent characterization of bagasse fiber for its chemical, physical and mechanical properties indicates that the potential of this coproduct of sugar and biofuel industries is much more than its applications in interior and structural components [136]. Bagasse is mostly burnt to generate energy for the sugar industry itself. Considering the fact that for such purpose almost 50% of the bagasse’s production is enough [137], it is necessary to develop new uses for these fibers to implement the rest 50 % and reduce their environmental impact. Moreover, the burning of bagasse fiber is also a matter of concern as far as atmospheric pollution because of smoke, soot and ash is concerned [138]. Chemical composition as well as physical and mechanical properties of bagasse fiber are presented in Table 2 [136, 139—142]. Bagasse fiber consists of structural components such as cellulose and hemicellulose that can provide stiffness and rigidity to the polymers and enhance their engineering applications. Besides, bagasse exhibits a porous cellular structure with a hollow cavity called lumen existing in unit cell of the fibers. Therefore, the bulk density of bagasse fiber is lower than other natural fibers and bagasse fibers can act more effectively as thermal and acoustic insulators [142]. For example, the densities of kenaf and banana fibers are 749 kg m-3 [140] and 1350-1500 kg m-3 [139], respectively, which are higher than that of bagasse (344-492 kg m-3 [139—140]). Also, cellulosic fibers such as bagasse with low Young’s modulus can act as useful crack growth inhibitors [143].

3.1.2. Bagasse particleboards

Bagasse particleboards generally consist of bagasse fibers bound together with either an organic or inorganic binder. The organic binders are mostly a phenolic or polyester thermoset resins and the board is produced by compression molding under high pressure and temper­ature. Different inorganic binders such as cement, gypsum and calcined magnesite can also be used to produce bagasse boards [144—146]. Besides, binderless bagasse particleboards have been produced and patented in 1986 which can simplify the manufacturing process and reduce production cost since the blending operation and equipment are eliminated [147]. In this regards, different processing techniques such as hot pressing [148] and steam-injection pressing [74] have been conducted.