4.5.1 Oil Spill Sorption

The nonwoven material made from bagasse fiber is an efficient method of cleaning up oil spills. For the removal of contaminant oil from water, carbonized pith bagasse is being used as an adsorbent. The extracted fibers from bagasse and carbonized at 300 °C were found to have a high performance for sorption. The carbonized pith bagasse is packed into a polypropylene bag and used for sorption behavior. It has been observed that the pad containing carbonized pith bagasse has higher sorption capacity as compared to the commercial sorbents. This pad can be reused for eight times.

4.5.2 Agricultural End-Use

The other application of bagasse fiber nonwovens can be found to make flowerpots. This type of flowerpot made has excellent biodegradability and can be buried in a clay pots. The bagasse nonwoven pot buried in flowerbed is dissolved within only 23 days. When the nonwoven pot is put in a larger plastic pot, it is biodegraded within 50 days. The study also shows that the bagasse nonwoven pot is capable of sustaining weather and watering during seedling and retailing.

The model was adapted to process A. comosus leaves from the first and second crops, which present different quantities of leaves (an average of 69 leaves in plants of the first crop and 105 leaves in plants of the second crop), as well as leaf lengths varying from 30 to 140 cm (Fig. 7.1). The machine’s dimensions are 105 cm long, 64 cm wide, and 90 cm high (Fig. 7.2a), with an approximate weight of 50 kg. It is easily

transportable by a pickup car. A wooden cover for the machine was designed in order to avoid the risk of accidents when the machine’s drum is working (Fig. 7.2a).

The scrapping machine has a drum (27.5 cm in diameter and 29 cm long) on a

4.5 cm diameter axis at the base of the machine. The axis is placed on two bearing benches (Fig. 7.2b). The drum has nine metallic teeth separated 9.5 cm from one another (Fig. 7.2c). The drum is rotated by a four-stroke petrol Honda engine, GX-120 model, with a cylinder capacity of 118 cc. The axis rotates at a minimum speed of 1,400 rpm and a maximum speed of 3,600 rpm, with a power of 4 HP. The transmis­sion of the movement of the engine’s main axis is performed by a system of pulleys and a belt. The main engine’s axis has a 5 cm diameter pulley, and onto the axis cross­ing the drum, there is a 29.5 cm diameter pulley connected by a B-55 belt (Fig. 7.2d).

The machine was put to work by introducing 4-6 pineapple leaves tip first (Fig. 7.3a). The worker must hold the leaves from the base. Once half the length of the leaf has been introduced (Fig. 7.3d), it must be taken out backwards (Fig. 7.3e). At this stage, the leaf fiber is separated from the parenchymal tissue (Fig. 7.3b). Later, the worker holds the leaves by the already shredded extreme (Fig. 7.3f) and introduces them their bases first until reaching the exposed fiber (Fig. 7.3g). Then, the leaves are taken out with the fiber completely extracted (Fig. 7.3c).

The soil degradation of OBF, PFR and their composites is measured in the function of weight loss with every 20 days of soil-burial time. The percentage weight loss with time is shown in Table 10.6. It can be noted that weight loss of PFR is very low, maybe due to antibacterial activities of formaldehyde. However, the degradation of OBF is faster than that of composites; hence, cellulose possesses the tendency to be degraded when buried in soil by the action of microorganism. Weight loss increased with the increase in burial time for all the specimens, and after 60 days, OBF is completely degraded in soil. It is also observed that up to 29 wt% OBF-PFR composites weight loss is not so prominent. This may be due to stronger interaction of fibre and PFR matrix beyond this percentage of fibre. Again, OBF is a natural biodegradable fibre which instantly absorbs water due to strong hydrophilic character. During soil degradation test, water penetrates from the cutting edges of the compos­ites and degradation occurred in presence of microorganism. So, higher fibre faction composite shows higher tendency of biodegradation.

10.2 Conclusion

In this chapter, the properties of OBF-PFR composites including density, bulk

content, mechanical properties, thermal and soil degradation properties are also

discussed. The following conclusions can be drawn:

1. Enhancement of the content of OBF will improve the mechanical properties of OBF-PFR composites. Results suggested that the appropriate percentage of OBF in composite is 29 wt%, but a larger amount of OBF would decrease the tensile strength and flexural strength of OBF-PFR composites. However, 38 wt% OBF containing composite is given higher modulus than other composites.

2. The presence of hydroxyl groups of the OBF also increases water absorption and resultant poor compatibility between the OBF and the hydrophobic PFR. AN-grafting gives hydrophobic character of OBF and hence increases compatibility with PFR. On the other hand, the surface area is increased by alkali treatment and bleaching which is well distributed in PFR and hence gives higher mechanical properties.

3. It is also indicated that the initial degradation temperature and final degradation temperature of OBF is increased after composite fabrication. Higher fibre — containing composite has lesser thermal stability.

4. OBF is readily degraded when buried in soil. PFR restricted the biodegradation of OBF-PFR composites.

Chemical coagulation is performed by making the mixture of chemicals for initia­tion of flocculation in the fusion of algae. The mixture of chemicals includes inorganic flocculants and organic flocculants or poly-electrolyte flocculants. The activity of two predictable chemical coagulants (FeCl3 and Fe2 (SO4)3) and five commercial polymeric flocculants (Drewfloc 447, Flocudex CS/5000, Flocusol CM/78, Chemifloc CV/300, and Chitosan) was matched by de Godos et al. (2011) to check their capability to eliminate bacterial biomass in algae from the dis­charge of a photosynthetically oxygenated piggery wastewater biodegradation process. Ferric salts achieved the uppermost biomass elimination (66-98 %) at the absorption of 150-250 mg/L. Polymer flocculants were considered sufficient for the similar elimination efficacies and eliminated the bacterial biomass at lower concentration (25-50 mg/L), though the efficiency reduced at upper polymer floc — culants amount.

The energy production through sugarcane straw involves the liquid, gaseous, and solid fuel production. Ethanol fuel is the most important that reduces our dependence on oil. Sugarcane straw is a suitable material for the ethanol fuel production because of its higher cellulose and hemicellulose content, which can be hydrolyzed, for instance, into fermentable sugars, and its other characteristics. The processes involved in bioethanol production are appropriate pretreatment, straw hydrolysis, conversion of the cell walls to simple sugars, anaerobic fermentation to convert the sugars to ethanol, and finally distillation. Pretreatment of straw is estimated for bioethanol production to account for 33 % of the total cost of bioethanol production. Appropriate pretreatment selection technique is the major challenge for the development which is economically sustain­able for bioethanol production technology from straw.

Although algal biomass production using waste water as a growth media seems attractive, we face several challenges thereof. One problem with such system is the availability of production sites (Slade and Bauen 2013) because we can only inte­grate biomass production with city waste water treatment plants. Overall, it is clear that reducing the inputs (energy and fertilizer) of the process makes algae an ideal feedstock in such integrated systems as compared to any other biofuel feedstocks, such as canola, corn, and switch grasses (Clarens et al. 2010). The requirement of fresh water and nutrients may decrease up to 100 % by using waste water as source nutrients (Li et al. 2010; Udom et al. 2013).

Presence of potentially toxic compounds in municipal waste water is another problem, especially when industrial waste water is being mixed. Heavy metals are believed to inhibit the important enzymes involved photosynthetic pathways of microalgae (Kumar et al. 2010). A noteworthy reduction in specific growth rate and biomass productivity of B. braunii was observed when cultivated in secondary efflu­ents of a municipal sewage treatment plant and it was shown that it was due to the presence of phenolic compounds and heavy metals in the waste water (Orpez et al.

2009) . Very fortunately some microalgae (Scenedesmus and Pseudochlorococcum.) have displayed tolerance to higher concentrations (80-100 mg mL-1) of heave met­als such as Pb2+. On the other hand, mercuric ions (Hg2+) inhibited chlorophyll bio­synthesis even at lower concentrations (5-10 mg mL-1) and a complete destructed algal cells at concentration >20 mg mL-1 (Shanab et al. 2012). It is believed that it is related to the amount of heavy metal ions bound to the cell surface, and to the amount of up-taken heavy metal ions (Franklin et al. 2001). However, the growth inhibition may due to extracellular ions concentration, for instance in the case of zinc (Wilde et al. 2006). In the algal stabilization ponds, the heavy metal ions, Zn2+ and Pb2+ were removed up 72 % and 73 % respectively, by Chlorella sp. (Kumar and Goyal 2010 ) . These studies have shown that there are important benefits to be derived from integrating algal production systems with nutrient-rich waste water streams (Dalrymple et al. 2013).

Although, people argue that using waste water for algal biomass production may pose contamination risks yet Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) studies have confirmed that it is a very productive approach and ensure the viability and sustainability of the complete biofuels production process in monetary terms (Kumar and Goyal 2010). An LCA study was carried out to evaluate the energy balance and environmental impacts from biomass to biodiesel production and combustion. It was shown that substantial (>50 %) cost reductions may be achieved if CO2, nutrients, and water can be provided at lower cost, i. e., sourced from waste water (Lardon et al. 2009).

Faris M. AL-Oqla, Othman Y. Alothman, M. Jawaid,

S. M. Sapuan, and M. H. Es-Saheb

Contents

1.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 2

1.2 Natural Fiber Composites………………………………………………………………………………………. 4

1.3 Date Palm Fibers………………………………………………………………………………………………… 6

1.3.1 Chemical Composition of Date Palm Fiber…………………………………………………… 8

1.3.2 Physical Properties of Date Palm Fiber 11

1.3.3 Mechanical Properties of Date Palm Fiber 12

1.3.4 Treatment of the Natural Fibers…………………………………………………………………… 12

1.4 Matrices for Date Palm Fibers………………………………………………………………………………. 16

1.5 Performance of Bio-composites………………………………………………………………………………. 18

1.5.1 Factors Influence the Composite Performance……………………………………………………… 19

1.6 Future Developments…………………………………………………………………………………………. 21

1.7 Summary………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 21

1.8 Conclusions…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 22

References ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 23

F. M. AL-Oqla

Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor 43400, Malaysia

O. Y. Alothman (*)

Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451 , Saudi Arabia e-mail: othman@ksu. edu. sa

M. Jawaid

Department of Biocomposite Technology, Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products (INTROP), Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor 43400, Malaysia

Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia

K. R. Hakeem et al. (eds.), Biomass and Bioenergy: Processing and Properties,

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-07641-6_1, © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014

Abstract Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) fibers are considered as one of the most available natural fiber types worldwide. Large quantities of date palm biomass wastes are annually accumulated without proper utilization. These quantities are of potential interest to support the industrial sustainability by producing alternative cheap eco-friendly materials. The competitiveness of the date palm fibers in several applications particularly in automotive industrial sectors was illustrated. Date palm fiber can be considered the best regarding several evaluation criteria like specific strength to cost ratio if compared to other fiber types. The effects of using date palm fibers in natural fiber composites with different polymer matrices were demon­strated. Criteria that can affect the proper selection and evaluation of the natural fibers as well as the composites for particular applications were discussed. The ben­efit of natural fibers’ modifications on physical, mechanical, and other properties were also explored. Selecting the proper date palm fiber reinforcement condition can dramatically enhance its future expectations and widen its usage in different applications.

Keywords Date palm fibers • Natural fiber composites • Composites performance • Evaluation criteria

1.1 Introduction

Date palm cultivation and their fruit utilization had been investigated by several studies and works. Unfortunately, little information and details are available regarding the utilization and implementation of the date palm fibers and wastes in producing desirable commercial natural fiber composites. Consequently, the inten­tion of this chapter is to introduce a comprehensive discussion on the value of the date palm fibers and their composites in addition to their properties and competi­tiveness from different physical, chemical, mechanical, and engineering point of views. This is presented here to focus a light on one of the most important fiber types that can be utilized as an eco-friendly raw alternative material for different engineering applications.

S. M. Sapuan

Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor 43400, Malaysia

Department of Biocomposite Technology, Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products (INTROP), Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor 43400, Malaysia

M. H. Es-Saheb

Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Saud University,

P. O. Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia

Table 1.1 Characteristics of the date palm production system (Dakheel 2003; Jain 2007)

1 Its sustainability in harsh climatic

2 High efficiency in resource utilization

3 High productivity

4 High nutritional value of date fruit

5 Long productive life

6 Enhance agriculture development by creating equable microclimate within oasis ecosystems

7 Helpful in reducing desertification risks

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) trees as one of mankind’s oldest cultivated plants belong to the family of Palmae (Arecaceae). It has played a vital role in daily life activities in the Middle East particularly the Arabian Peninsula since 7,000 years (Ahmed et al. 1995). Recently, the worldwide production of date palm fruits is con­tinuously increasing which indicates the importance of the date palm trees. The utilization and industrialization of dates are distributed among several countries such as Egypt (1,352,950 metric tons), Saudi Arabia (1,078, 300 metric tons), Iran (1,023,130 metric tons), UAE (775,000 metric tons), and Algeria (710,000 metric tons) (Chandrasekaran and Bahkali 2013).

Date palm trees have government support, social acceptance, and positive view in most countries (Al-Oqla and Sapuan 2014). Such reasons can sufficiently express why there are more than 120 million date palm trees in different countries world­wide. Over two-thirds of such trees are in Arab countries. Each tree has the ability to grow and produce fruits for more than 100 years (Al-Khanbashi et al. 2005). For instance, date palm trees have positive points of view and government support due to several reasons such as to produce the raw materials for local industries (furni­ture and home accessories), and produce valuable food for human beings (Jain

2007) . Moreover, date palm trees can contribute to the national economy of several countries. For instance, the income for Saudi Arabia from the date fruit production was about $2.12 billion according to the base price of 2006 (Alshuaibi 2011). Due to the unique characteristics of date palm it is usually called the tree of life (Jain

2007) . That is, it is very beneficial and connected with the survival and well-being of humans living particularly in hot arid environments under harsh climatic condi­tions. The date palm production systems have several distinguished characteristics as shown in Table 1.1. Moreover, the rich date fruit plays a crucial role in providing nutrition to human kinds under hot and arid conditions. Date fruits are rich source of fructose, sweeteners, fat, proteins, glucose, and vitamins (Al Eid 2006; Jain

2007) in addition to other minerals. Therefore, date palm fruits are considered as an ideal food for human beings as it provides several kinds of essential nutrients and potential health benefits. In addition, date palm trees are usually utilized for garden decorations in Arabian Peninsula. Consequently, it can be deduced that such reasons can ensure the continuous availability of the date palms and their residuals and fibers as renewable raw materials with low prices to be used in differ­ent industrial applications.

The shape, chemical composition and structure of bamboo are very suitable for pulping. Pulping performance and pulp strength make bamboo fibers one of the most suitable materials for paper production. Bamboo pulp mill may result in improvement in paper industry like substituting pulping techniques. The paper produced from bamboo has certain advantages, which include reduction in pressure of wood demand, less pollution, and environmental protection (Kefu 2002). Bamboo pulp produced from hemi-cellulosic fibers can be used potently for the production of paper. In paper industry, bamboo fiber pulp can be used in the formation of news­print, bond paper, toilet tissue, cardboard, cement sacks, and coffee filters (Vena et al. 2010).

Biomass fibres are usually found as short reinforcements which are used to produce mat fabrics. Discontinuous fibres (chopped) are generally used for a randomly ori­ented reinforcement (mat) when there is not any preferential stress direction and/or there is a low stress/strain level in the composite. The alternative to the use of short fibres is the manufacture of long yarns. Yarn is a long continuous assembly of rela­tively short interlocked fibres, suitable for use in the production of textile, sewing, crocheting, knitting, Biomass in Biocomposite Industry

The composite-like structure of natural fibres are generally not single filaments as most man-made fibres, where they can have several physical forms, which depend on the degree of fibre isolation to make them competitive in terms of specific and economic properties compared to synthetic fibre. Physical and mechanical proper­ties of biomass fibre depend on the single fibre chemical composition according to grooving, geometry of the elementary cell and extraction/processing method condi­tions. The earliest review by Maloney (1986) and later Abdul Khalil and Rozman (2004) has outlined a general classification system for various wood-based compos­ites. Conventional wood-based composites (e. g. cellulosic fibreboard, hardboard, particleboard, waferboard, flaxboard, oriented strand board, oriented waferboard) and advanced polymer composites, which frequently termed as biocomposite (e. g. thermoplastic composite, thermoset composite, elastomer composite, hybrid com­posite, and ceramic composite) are classified by specific gravity, density, raw mate­rials and processing methods (Fig. 5.6) . Performance of the composite can be tailored to the end use of the product with each classification category. They are widely used in structural and non-structural applications for both various interior and outdoor structures.

In composite manufacturing, it is crucial to know the fibre characteristics such as shape and aspect ratio as well as their distribution, orientation, alignment, volume fraction and interfacial adhesion in the polymer matrix. Some experimental studies show that fibre orientation plays a very important role in physical and mechanical properties of fibre reinforced nanocomposites (Smith et al. 2000; Shokuhfar et al. 2008; Wang et al. 2008). Rozman et al. (2013) found good mechanical strength and wettability of non-woven composite from kenaf fibre and PP fibre by using carding process and needle punching process. In other case, Shibata et al. (2008) claimed that fibre oriented kenaf reinforced composites can be produced using additional fabrication steps added into compression moulding process. Example for random and oriented kenaf fibre is shown in Fig. 5.7.

Furthermore, nanotechnology is able to manipulate and control fibre-to-fibre bonding at a microscopic level, which offers an opportunity to control nanofibrillar bonding at the nanoscale. Preparation and application of nanocomposites using nano — and microfibrils of biomass fibres are undergoing rapidly in biocomposite science (Bhat et al. 2011; Henriksson et al. 2008; Moon et al. 2006). The fibrillation of pulp fibre from biomass fibres was done to obtain nano-order unit web-like net­work structure, called microfibrillated cellulose. It is obtained through a mechanical treatment of pulp fibres, consisting of refining and high pressure homogenizing pro­cesses. In the range between 16 and 30 passes through refiner treatments, pulp fibres underwent a degree of fibrillation that resulted in a stepwise increase of mechanical properties, most strikingly in bending strength (Abdul Khalil and Rozman 2004; 2010). The bulk of the fibres went through a complete fibrillation that causes the increase in mechanical properties. For additional high pressure homogenization- treated pulps, composite strength increased linearly against water retention values, which characterize the cellulose’s exposed surface area, and reached maximum value at many passes through the homogenizer (Kamel 2007).

The energy-absorbing mechanisms built in the composite include (Uma Devi et al.

1997) :

1. Utilization of the energy required to de-bond the fibers and pull them completely out of the matrix

2. Use of a weak interface between the fiber and the matrix

Impact resistance and strength are determined from the Charpy impact test con­ducted on IDL FRP composite specimens, and the results are graphically plotted in Fig. 8.16. Complete break of specimens is observed at all the fiber volume fractions.

An impact strength 18.94 kJ/m2 is obtained for IDL FRP composites at maximum fiber volume fraction. The impact strength of the IDL FRP composites is increasing with increase in fiber volume fraction. PALF FRP composites had exhibited similar kind of behavior, where the impact strength of the composites was found to increase linearly with the weight fraction of the fiber.