Natural Cellulose Fibers from Renewable Resources

Keywords

Sugarcane • Bagasse • Rind • Pith

Sugarcane is the world’s largest crop grown in about 23.8 million hectares with a total harvest of about 1.69 billion tons in 2010. After squeezing the canes for sugar, the remaining materials, generally called bagasse, are obtained as coproducts. About 30-32 % by weight of the cane is produced as coproducts [08Lee]. Bagasse is a lignocellulosic material consisting of 45-55 % cellulose, 20-25 % hemicellu — lose, and 18-24 % lignin. Sugarcane stems consist of three major parts: the pith (5 %), fibers (73 %), and the rind (22 %). Both the pith and the outer rind have been studied as sources for fibers. The pith has a considerably lower density (220 kg/m3) and consists of coarse fibers and many large cavities compared to the rind with a density of 550 kg/m3. In Brazil, the average price for a ton of bagasse is between $3.5 and $11.8, making it one of the cheapest lignocellulosic agricultural by-products [04Fil]. Unlike the fibers obtained from the oil plants, bagasse fibers are reported to have considerably low elongation (1.1 %) and moderate strength of about 222 MPa (1.7 g/den) and modulus of 27 GPa (208 g/den) [04Tri, 09Gui]. Compared to the lignocellulosic fibers obtained from other agricultural by-products, relatively fewer studies have been conducted to understand the poten­tial and properties of obtaining fibers from sugarcane bagasse. Fibers obtained from sugarcane bagasse were reported to have a fineness of 6.5-14 tex and length from

2.5 to 20 cm. In another research, fibers with strength of 290 MPa (2.2 g/den) and modulus of 17 GPa (13.1 g/den) were obtained from sugarcane stems [12Far].

References

[04Fil] Filho, P. A., Badr, O.: Appl. Energy 77(1), 51 (2004)

[04Tri] Trindade, W. G., Ilce, W. H., Razera, A. T., Ruggiero, R., Frollini, E., Castellan, A.:

Macromol. Mater. Eng. 289, 728 (2004)

[08Lee] Lee, S. C., Mariatti, M.: Mater. Lett. 62, 2253 (2008)

[09Gui] Guimaraes, J. L., Frollini, E., Silva, C. G., Wypych, F., Satyanarayana, K. G.: Ind. Crop. Prod. 30, 407 (2009)

[12Far] Faruk, O., Bledzki, A. K., Fink, H., Sain, M.: Prog. Polym. Sci. 37, 1552 (2012)