Production of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) from oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) stalks

Mohd Shaffi, Shahrul Intan Shaieda (2017) Production of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) from oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) stalks. [Project Paper] (Submitted)

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Abstract

Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch (OPEFB) a highly fibrous, mineral rich material and is one of the most important solid waste fractions from the oil mill. OPEFB consists of two major part which are the stalks and the spikelets. The stalk fibres contained the highest amount of cellulose and the lowest amount of lignin content when compared to OPEFB spikelet fibres. Recently, the demands of natural fiber composite in various applications is high. To overcome this issue, an alternative pathway is needed to convert the cellulose to its derivatives such as carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) through chemical derivatization reaction. Nowadays, commercialized CMC is widely produce from many sources of natural fibres including using the whole OPEFB. However, commercialized CMC production does not focuses on the stalks of OPEFB. Therefore, this study was carried out to produce CMC from the stalks of the OPEFB and only focuses on the physical properties. A 39 % of CMC was successfully produced from OPEFB stalks through alkali treatment followed by the mercization process with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and subsequently etherified with monochloroacetic acid. The presence of C=O bond at wavenumber of 1741 cm-1 in infrared radiation (IR) spectrum confirmed the conversion of cellulose to carboxymethyl cellulose. Based on the analysis, it is found that CMC produced from OPEFB stalks contained high moisture content. Apart from that, CMC OPEFB Stalks has lowest value of bulk density, tapped density and true density thus affecting the flowability of the CMC powders to have difficult flow characteristics.. The water retention capacity obtained was the lowest compared to other commercial CMC. While, the colour of CMC obtained is white as expected and it is proven based on the L*, a* and b* values

Item Type:	Project Paper
Faculty:	Faculty of Engineering
Depositing User:	Ms. AZLINA ZAINAL ABIDIN
Date Deposited:	11 Nov 2022 03:50
Last Modified:	11 Nov 2022 03:50
URI:	http://psaspb.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/562

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