title: Quality evaluation of dissolving pulp fabricated from banana plant stem and its potential for biorefinery.
abstract: The study was conducted to evaluate the quality of dissolving pulp of Musa sapientum L. (banana) plant stem and its potential for biorefinery. Introduction of pre-hydrolysis prior to any alkaline pulping process helps to reduce the content of hemicellulose and consequently produce acceptably high content of cellulose pulp. Water pre-hydrolysis was done at 150°C for 90min. The amount of lignin, xylan and glucan in the extracted pre-hydrolysis liquor (PHL) was 1.6, 4.9 and 1.6%, respectively. Pulping of pre-extracted chips was done following soda-AQ, alkaline sulfite and kraft process. The ratio of chip to liquor was 1:7 for both pre-hydrolysis and pulping. The kraft pulping process with 20% active alkali and 25% sulfidity at 150°C for 90min showed the best result. The lowest kappa number was 26.2 with a considerable pulp yield of 32.7%. The pulp was bleached by acidic NaClO2 and the consistency was 10% based on air-dried pulp. The lowest amount of 7% NaClO2 was used for the bleaching sequence of D0ED1ED2. After D0ED1ED2 bleaching, the pulp showed that α-cellulose, brightness and ash were 91.9, 77.9 and 1.6% respectively. The viscosity was 19.9cP. Hence, there is a possibility to use banana plant stem as a raw material for dissolving grade pulp and other bioproducts.
authors.affiliation: PT. Indah Kiat Pulp & Paper Tbk. Perawang Mill, Indonesia; Pulp and Paper Technology, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand; Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan. Electronic address: atanufwt03ku@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Atanu Kumar
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Das
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan.
authors.forename: Akiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nakagawa-Izumi
authors.affiliation: Pulp and Paper Technology, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand; Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ohi
mesh_terms: D002482:Cellulose; D006868:Hydrolysis; D008031:Lignin; D028521:Musa / Q000737:chemistry*; D010209:Paper; D018547:Plant Stems / Q000737:chemistry*; D014783:Viscosity
chemical_list: D002482:Cellulose; D008031:Lignin
keywords: Alpha cellulose; Biorefinery; Musa sapientum; Pre-hydrolysis liquor (PHL)