Effects of Processing parameters on the yield of cellulose isolated from sugarcane bagasse

Sugarcane bagasse is a by product obtained after sucrose extraction from the sugarcane plant and it contains high amount of cellulose. Cellulose has a high demand in paper industries, food industries, pharmaceutical and cosmetics. In this study, cellulose was isolated from sugarcane bagasse in two distinct stages using different processing parameters to investigate the optimization of the yield of cellulose. The bagasse was subjected to chemical. treatment in order to eliminate lignin and hemicelluloses using different parameters such as concentration, temperature and duration of reaction. Pretreatment of bagasse with 2 wt. % of acidified NaClO; and then with 2 wt. % of NaOH for 2 hours at 70 °C was the most effective parameter that yielded optimum amount of cellulose which was about 41.5%. The obtained chemically-purified cellulose fibers were dissoluted in NTU solution and cellulose nanoparticles were synthesised using various concentration of cellulose solution. The morphology of cellulose nanoparticles were studied using SEM