EXTRACTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF CELLULOSE FROM AGRICULTURAL BIOMASS (SUGARCANE BAGASSE)

Abstract

The surplus in the amount of agricultural wastes leftover on the farmlands found in Song, Gombi, Mubi north, Mubi south, Michika, and  Madagali local government areas of Adamawa state after each harvest season  and the strong drive for sustainable resource utilization and alternative biodegradable and renewable packaging polymeric materials are the motivations to conduct this research study. Agricultural biomass management has been considered to be a vital strategy in the journey to accomplish natural resource management and utilization as well as in the maintenance of the quality of the environment. Agricultural residues like sugarcane bagasse, woodchips, sawdusts, rice husks, cotton linters, e.t.c can serve as sustainable, renewable, and inexpensive raw materials for the production of cellulose and its derivatives for the textile industry, bio-plastics, biomedical devices and in drug delivery as well as in agricultural mulch films. Cellulose was extracted from sugarcane bagasse by the alkali pre-treatment method with Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) at temperature range of 60^o- 120^oC and time duration of 1 hour to 2hours.This was followed by bleaching with 5% NaOCl  and pH adjustment with 1% Hydrochloric acid and then washed with distilled water and dried in a hot air oven at 105^oC until constant weight. The extracted cellulose was confirmed by X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR) respectively. The cellulose yield for treated bagasse fibre was found to be 89.55+0.63%, hemicellulose as 6.14+0.81%, and lignin was 2.64+0.65%. Morphological analysis revealed that the average diameter of the cellulose was 12.03µm. The XRD diffraction showed that the untreated sugarcane bagasse has a crystallinity index of 31.76%, while the treated fibre (cellulose) has a value of 51.13%. FTIR spectra showed a range of 3530-3050cm^-1 which is ascribed to the free OH stretching vibration of the –OH group in the inter-molecular and intra-molecular hydrogen bonds in the cellulose molecules. The applied procedures was successful for extracting cellulose from sugarcane bagasse. The cellulose will be highly useful for the acetylation process to convert it to cellulose acetate (CA) for use as polymeric plastic, a modified derivative in drug delivery, reinforcement in biopolymer composites and for textile and fabric manufacturing.