Extraction and characterization of cellulose from agricultural waste materials

Abstract

Agricultural and industrial wastes are produced in huge amount throughout the worldwide. In Sultanate Oman and other regions, these wastes are generally not exploited to be re-used or recycled. Waste materials have become of interest due to the beneficial use of the residual biomass left behind. These wastes tend to have harmful impacts on the environment because they might contain strong fibers that decompose at slow rate under normal environmental conditions. Agricultural waste materials contain cellulose which can be extracted to be used in many important processes including the production of bio-plastic and the production of food. The project conducted to isolate and characterize cellulose from waste residuals. Cellulose has been isolated from waste residuals via alkali pretreatment using NaOH followed by bleaching process, while cellulose was produced via acid hydrolysis method using sulfuric acid (H2SO4). The cellulose produced was characterized with Fourier Transform Inferred Spectroscopy (FTIR) in which it is found the main dominant functional groups are O–H and C–H, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) which showed a smooth surface morphology which indicates the removal of wax, lignin & hemicellulose and Energy-dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX) showed that the cellulose approximately contains of 64.5 wt% of C, 30 wt% of O, 1% S and 1.7% Na.