Sugarcane Straw as Textile Fiber Production

The natural cellulosic fibers using agricultural by-products have become more urgent and currently used due to higher price and availability of natural and synthetic fibers (Reddy and Yang 2009). These agricultural by-products can be used for the develop­ment of novel cellulose, protein, and synthetic fibers for textile, composite, and biomedical applications (Huda et al. 2007). Research groups have been encouraged to develop suitable technologies such as the use of raw material for textile fiber pro­duction due to the availability and composition of sugarcane straw which would give innovative and nonpolluting destination. Lu et al. (2009) reported that sugarcane straw has three main macromolecular components: cellulose, polyoses, and lignin. The physical, biological, and chemical processes can be used for separation of the macromolecular fractions of lignocellulosic materials. The sugarcane straw cellulose fiber could be produced by a wet-spinning method that can show tensile strength compatible with lyocell fibers in the textile market.