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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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% H20 2: 4% NaOH), medium (2.5% H20 2: 2%
NaOH) and low (1.5% H20 2 : 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
70°C with fixed ratio of EFB to liquor of 1 : 1 0 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 significantl y 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. This observation suggested that the maximum possible power
reaction of alkaline peroxide to EFB could be reaped in the said duration. The
identified conditions also offered adequate external fibrillation for hydrogen bonding
in forming paper network as evident from scanning electron microscopy (SEM) .
Description
Keywords
OIL PALM , TREATMENT