PHYSICAL AND THERMAL CHARACTERISTICS OF COCO PEAT FIBRE REINFORCED POLYURETHANE COMPOSITE FOR INSULATION BOX IN MARINE APPLICATION

During fishing, there is a need for a hold as a temporary storage area for fish. Furthermore the fish hold ability to maintain cold temperatures helps retain the fish freshness. However, the right technology is required to support the cold chain system for catch quality to be maintained. The current problem is that the insulation material made of polyurethane is still expensive, which affects the price of the coolbox. So alternative materials are needed to reduce the use of polyurethane. The purpose of this study was to investigate the physical characteristics and thermal conductivity of composite materials from a mixture of cocopeat and polyurethane for the fishermen fish box insulation. The composite material composition includes the volume ratios between polyurethane and cocopeat of 1 to 0.5, 1 to 1, 1 to 1.5, 1 to 2, and 1 to 2.5. The thermal conductivity and compressive static test on materials use ASTM E122599 and ASTM D1621 standards, respectively. All test results were compared with 100% polyurethane material. The thermal conductivity test results for 100% polyurethane material were obtained at 0.026 W/m.K. Cocopeat can be used as a polyurethane mixture for fish box insulation, although the heat conductivity test results are still below 100%, but the test results are still in range of the recommended, which is 0.023-0.04 W/m.K. The higher the percentage of cocopeat can increase the maximum compressive strength. So that the composition of the material chosen for the isolation of fish boxes on fishing vessels is a composition of 1 to 1. In this case, there is a conductivity value of 0.037 W/m.K with a yield stress of 0.05 MPa and a maximum stress of 0.7 MPa. Therefore, this material can save the use of polyurethane by up to 50%.