The following extraction methods can be used to obtain bagasse fibers from sugarcane.

4.3.1 Atmospheric Extraction Process to Obtain Bagasse Fibers

There are various mechanical and chemical methods are available for the extraction of the bagasse fibers. Bagasse was put down on the surrounds of an open but sheltered in a sugar factory for duration of minimum two weeks. To satisfy uniform drying process the layer of bagasse was turned over a day. The moisture content was calculated for arbitrarily selected specimens of fibers. The results showed a uniform level of mois­ture less than 15 %. Small fibers and impurity were separated through a sieve process using a 2 ft by 2 ft wooden frame having a screen with 1/16 in eye dimension.

4.3.2 Chemical Extraction

It has been noticed that the most dominant factors for the extraction process are alkaline concentration, reaction time, incorporation, and presence of steam explo­sion. The extraction process tooks place at atmospheric pressure. For the alkaline extraction, an atmospheric process is employed. In this process an LSU designed
atmospheric reactor was used (Fig. 4.4). From previous studies, it is observed that a 2.0 N NaOH solution needed for the removal of a remarkable amount of lignin. The capacity of the reactor was 200 L. Reactor first heated the solution to the boiling point at 100 °C and then gradually screened bagasse is fed to the reactor. The fiber/liquid ratios were maintained at 1:10. After approximately 90 min the whole amount of bagasse delignifies and collected at the other hand of the reactor. The extracted fibers were washed thoroughly with water and left (to dry) in a con­trolled environment for two days with a relative humidity of 65 % and a temperature of 71 °C (Collier and Arora 1994).