INVESTIGATION IN MOISTURE CHARACTERISTICS OF SUGARCANE BAGASSE FIBER
Prabakaran
Bachelor of Fashion Technology
Angel college of Engineering and Technology, Tiruppur, India
Email: srpraba66@gmail.com
Introduction:
Bagasse is the fibrous matter that remains after sugarcane is crushed to extract their juice. Sugarcane bagasse one of the largest cellulose based agro industrial by products and fibrous residue left after the sugarcane is crushed in the factories of the sugar and alcohol industry. Now a day it is used as a biofuel and as a renewable resource in the manufacture of pulp and paper products and building material. Bagasse is also used as a source of renewable power generation and for the production of bio-based materials. It have a mixture of hard fiber, having high hygroscopicity, soil, wax, residual sugars etc. The bagasse can be made into soft boards, medium density fiber boards or particle boards, as well as high density hard boards using dry (or) wet chemical processing. The components of bagasse are cellulose – 26% to 43% on dry weight. Sugarcane bagasse a residue from the refining process of sugarcane. This product represents a great morphological heterogeneity. Without producting sugarcane bagasse fiber, bagasse was treated as a waste product, and was often set ablaze, thereby causing air pollution.
Bagasse:
I already define bagasse is fibrous matter that remains after sugarcane stalks are crushed to extract their juice. It is dry pulpy residue left after the extraction of juice from sugar cane.
Fig: Sugarcane bagasse
Compositions of bagasse:
Bagasse is a heterogeneous material containing around 30 – 40 percent of fiber. Bagasse comes from different parts of the cane stalk comprising the outside rind crushed with the inner pith. Long and fine fibers are located in the rind part of the stalk and short fibers in the inside part known as the pith. As bagasse is a mixture of both parts, the fibers have uneven and uncontrolled lengths. However, because of its high fiber content and particularly because of its cellulose rate, bagasse can be used to produce sustainable fibers.
S.no
Item
Percentage %
1
Moisture
49.0
2
Soluble solids
02.3
3
Fiber
48.7
Compositions of bagasse:
Cellulose (%) 45-55
Hemi cellulose (%) 20-25
Lignin (%) 18-24
Pectin (%) 0.6-0.8
Ash (%) 1-4
Extractives (%) 1.5-9
It shows the chemical composition of bagasse plant fibers, and their physical properties. It is noted that cellulose is the main constituent of plant fibers followed by hemi-celluloses and lignin interchangeably and pectin respectively. Cellulose is also the reinforcement for lignin, hemi cellulose and Pectin.
Sugarcane bagasse fiber preparation:
Fig: Sugarcane bagasse fiber process flowchart
Drying
The artificial drying process is done in heater for 24 hours at 60ºC temperature, where it is checked for possible anomalies, since above this temperature there is water loss that could cause disequilibrium to its basic structural form. Immediately after treatment and drying it is prepared for particulate obtainment by cutting it to mean length of 6 cm.
Fig: Drying of Sugarcane bagasse
Moisture test
The samples with a minimum weight of 20g must be removed, their form and dimensions are not important. However, they must not possess free particles. Initially, the samples should be weighed and then placed in a heater at a temperature of (103±2) C until they reach a constant mass. Afterwards, it must cool to room temperature, weighed again and the moisture ratio calculated by
Equation:
H = mv-ms/ms*100
H = humidity (%);
ms = dry mass (g);
mv = green or humid mass (g).
1.Determination moisture regain of bagasse
It is defined as the weight of water in a material expressed a percentage of the oven dry weight of the material.
Let,
Oven dry weight of a material = D
Weight of water in this material = W
Moisture regain, R = W/D *100
2.Determination moisture content of bagasse
Moisture content is defined as the weight of water in a material express as a percentage of the total weight of the material.
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Verma, P.C. Gope, M.K. Maheshwari and R.K. Sharma “Bagasse Fiber Composites-A Review” J. Mater. Environ. Sci. 3, july2012, ISSN: 2028-2508, pp. 1079-1092.
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