Influence of the Density in Binderless Particleboards Made from Sorghum

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

 

The present study reports the use of lignocellulosic materials with potential application in the wood or lignocellulosic panel production sector. Technically the assays are well suited to the purpose of the study. However, it is necessary to improve the justification of the study, since it makes associations and statements regarding the need for environmental preservation and waste management that are at odds with sustainable agricultural practices observed in agriculture practiced in the equatorial region and in agriculture in the tropics on land. with low fertility. In this sense, the authors must highlight the importance of producing value-added products that converge with the needs of preserving agricultural soils and environmental waste management to increase the importance of the intended study within Spain and, possibly, in the European Union. as the authors intend.

 

INTRODUCTION

 

- LINES 24 – 29: authors must provide citations related to the statements presented in this paragraph, since the influence of the factors presented as the main causes of the occurrence of the greenhouse effect is far from being a technical or scientific consensus.

 

- LINES 33 – 42: the authors were unfortunate in generalizing about the disposal of agricultural waste, since there are countries with policies and technologies for the reuse of agricultural waste that meet the sustainable development objectives established in the UN 2030 agenda. In this sense, the authors must delimit the regions of the globe in which agricultural practices are not yet being socio-environmentally sustainable and cite studies from journals that really have technical-scientific property to publish studies of this magnitude.

 

- LINES 43 – 45: the information presented in this sentence needs to be directed to the use of the soil for agronomic activity. The data presented in the cited source only address the use of forests for extractive activities and lack specific information regarding the agronomic use of greater detail regarding the use of land for agriculture, as well as it does not adequately distinguish how much of the forests used are of agro-industrial reforestation. In this sense, it is suggested that the authors regionalize the information that converges with the purpose of this study, as sorghum is a less representative crop when it comes to agricultural activity in the equatorial region.

 

METHODS

 

- LINES 86 – 90: it is necessary to report the parameters that were evaluated and the statistical method adopted to evaluate and validate the data obtained. In this sense, the information presented in lines 117, 118 and 119 can be rearranged after line 90.

 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

- FIGURE 2: it is suggested that the authors add a class limit in which the TS value is considerable acceptable according to the quality standards that are adopted in Spain.

 

- FIGURE 3: in the same way as the previous one, it is suggested that the authors highlight a continuous line in the figure that represents the critical limit of tolerable water absorption for lignocellulosic panels sold in Spain (or the European Union).

 

- FIGURES 4, 5 AND 6: the authors describe the upper and lower acceptable limits for the mechanical properties. In this sense, it is suggested that the class limits also be added to the figures to facilitate the comparative analysis of the results obtained with acceptable quality standards.

 

- Table 6: authors will be able to better explore the information presented in this table. The authors can further discuss the effect of particle size on the observed mechanical properties and, with the data presented, estimate the energy and water cost of generating these panels.

 

CONCLUSIONS

The conclusions are partially supported by the data presented and partially discussed in the RESULTS AND DISCUSSION section.

The statement made in lines 248, 249 and 250 are not related to the data discussed in this manuscript. In this sense, the authors should draw this conclusion or present the data that have been systematically obtained to allow this statement.

 

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

The work needs to be adjusted to be ready for publication in Agronomy – MDPI. As a work suggestion, the authors can treat the data obtained and presented in table 6 with more appropriate statistical methods, such as Response Surface Methodology and/or Pareto Analysis to highlight the influence of 2nd degree factors between density and size particle with the mechanical properties observed in the study.

Author Response

Dear reviewer:

Please find attached the response to your comments.

Best regards

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The research was associated with an interesting topic and the text was well-written. Specific comments are given below to improve the quality of the article:

-Line 15: Please give the full name of the abbreviations WA, MOR, MOE and IB in the Abstract.

-Line 51: The name "Sorghum vulgare" should be written in italics format.

-Line 86: Write "were manufactured" instead of "were manufacture".

-Based on the way that the text is written, I suggest you separate the Results from the Discussion. Particularly, subsections 3.1 to 3.4 should be under Section "3. Results", while subsection 3.5 should be under Section "4. Discussion". In this case, the Conclusions section should be renumbered (i.e. "5. Conclusions").

Author Response

Dear reviewer:

Please find attached the response to your comments.

Best regards

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf