Pulpability Of Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch Via Alkaline Peroxide Treatment

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Date
2011-07
Authors
Muhd Yusoff, Rosnah
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Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
The effects of alkaline peroxide (AP) concentration level and pre-treatment time on oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) were studied. The impregnation of EFB with alkaline peroxide was observed at three levels of alkaline peroxide concentration, which were categorized as high (5% H2O2: 4% NaOH), medium (2.5% H2O2: 2% NaOH) and low (1.5% H2O2: 1% NaOH). The reaction was also observed at various pre-treatment time which were 0 minute, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes, 50 minutes, 60 minutes and 120 minutes. The experiment was performed at 70oC with fixed ratio of EFB to liquor of 1:10 based on oven-dry weight of EFB. The chemical compositions of untreated EFB fibres were determined and served as baseline data of the study. The analysis showed that the yield percentage was increased significantly with the increasing alkaline peroxide concentration and treatment time. However, fibre characteristics (fibre length and fibre width), kappa number and freeness were found to decrease with the increasing alkaline peroxide concentration and treatment time. Application of higher alkaline peroxide concentration with longer treatment time offered better density compared to lower chemical concentration with shorter treatment time. However, this pattern was inversed with thickness. The mechanical properties such as tensile strength, folding endurance, bursting strength and zero span increased significantly when higher chemical concentration and longer treatment time were applied. The same pattern also was obtained for brightness as well but the maximum possible brightness was only obtained at the 60th minutes of alkaline peroxide treatment. Consistently for mechanical and optical properties, a rapid increased in pulp and paper property development was observed in the first 40 minutes to 60 minutes of treatment in alkaline peroxide.
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Keywords
The effects of alkaline peroxide , on oil palm empty fruit bunch
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