Papers by Keyword: Bagasse

Abstract: Surface treatment is one of the method used to enhance the mechanical performance of natural fiber composite by improving the compatibility of fiber and matrix. Nevertheless, no proof can be shown on which surface treatment is the absolute solution in improving the mechanical properties of natural fiber composite. Different surface treatments might have needed for different kinds of natural fiber composites. In this research work, water, alkaline, permanganate, bleaching and acetylation treatment on bagasse fiber are evaluated and the effect of soaking temperature as well as the effect of fiber loading are investigated. The mechanical performance of bagasse fiber-epoxy composite was studied by carrying out three-point bending test and optical microscopy test. Among 0w/w% and 5w/w% fiber loading, composite with 1w/w% and 2w/w% fiber loading possessed the highest flexural strength and modulus respectively. However, poor wettability between fiber and matrix was observed at higher fiber loading. Water, bleaching, permanganate and acetylation treatment have minor positive effect on the mechanical performance of the composite, yet a great increment in flexural properties of alkali treated fiber composite was noticed such that 21.48% and 23.95% of improvement was made on flexural strength and flexural modulus respectively. Optical microscopy test indicated that alkali treatment is responsible for roughening the fiber surface, and improving the fiber wettability and dispersion. Depend on the surface treatment, effect of soaking temperature may vary. In some treatments, hotter soaking temperature led to faster rate of reaction, which resulted in greater surface roughening and greater cleansing effect. Despite of that, over reaction can be happened in some cases, which will result in lower flexural properties due to over damaged fiber. Hence, it was concluded that the alkaline treatment at room temperature could be the most effective surface treatment to enhance the mechanical performance of bagasse fiber-epoxy composite.

Abstract: Torrefaction process was employed to upgrade bagasse as a better fuel compared with raw bagasse in a biomass power plant. Torrefaction is a process that unnecessary organic and inorganic matters are removed from the biomass structure. The remaining solid components can then be used as fuel. This preliminary work was a set of experimental investigations of bagasse torrefaction. The process temperatures were varied as 250, 280 and 320 °C during a fixed reaction time of 30 minutes. Moisture content, mass and heating value of untreated bagasse (before) and torrified bagasse (after) were determined and compared for the 3 different temperatures. Then, energy yield for each case was calculated based on the experimental results to find the optimal condition of bagasse torrefaction. At 320 °C, moisture content was reduced by 92.4% and the torrified bagasse has 4 times higher heating value compared to raw bagasse. While at 250 °C, the reduction of moisture was only 79.7% with approximately 2 times higher in heating value. It was found that the higher reaction temperature was, the better physical structure and higher heating value were. However, higher temperature resulted in lower remaining mass and less energy yield. Therefore, the optimum case was selected based on the energy yield. It was shown that the highest energy yield of 176% was obtained in the case of 250 °C. On the other hand, for the case of 320 °C, energy yield was only 135%. It was thus evident that bagasse should be upgraded by torrefaction process with a temperature as low as 250 °C for a better energy yield rather than better heating value.

Abstract: Morphology, mechanical properties and rheological behavior of wood plastic composite, derived from acrylate-styrene-acrylonitrile (ASA) and bagasse which was treated with potassium permanganate (KMnO₄) and using styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) as impact modifier, were reported. The effect of fiber surface treatment with KMnO₄ and different amount of SBR on properties of wood plastic composite, prepared from ASA and 50 phr of bagasse, were investigated. Wood plastic composites (both treated and untreated) with varying amount of SBR, as impact modifier from 0-15 wt% of ASA, were prepared by melt-blending technique. The specimens were shaped with a compression molding machine and characterized, including morphology, impact strength, flexural properties and rheological behavior. It was demonstrated that the fiber surface treatment, using KMnO₄, could effectively impove interfacial adhesion between bagasse and ASA matrix. These led to an improvement of morphology and mechanical properties such as impact strength, flexural strength and modulus. SEM micrographs revealed that the interfacial modification enhanced the interfacial adhesion between bagasse (fiber) and ASA (matrix) causing an increasing of shear stress and shear viscosity. Additionally, the effect of amount of SBR, as impact modifier, was also reported. The resulted showed that the impact strength was improved with increasing the amount of SBR (up 5 wt% of ASA) whereas, flexural strength and modulus were found to decrease with increasing SBR content.

Abstract: Sugarcane bagasse has demonstrated its ability to act as a reductor in iron-reduction process. As a reductor, bagasse has specialties as double-acting reductor equiped with volatile matter. This is the first study of the use of bagasse as reductor in iron-reduction process. The parameter concluded from this study was used for the second study which report has been submitted for publication. The aim of this study is to discuss the effect of reduction process parameter to the use of bagasse as reductor. This study was divided into 2 step. The first step is determining the optimum reduction process temperature and weight ratio. The reduction temperature varied as 700, 800, 900 and 1000 °C and the weight ratio are 1:2 and 1:4. The process duration is 30 minutes. The second stape is determining the process duration. The process duration will be varied as 30, 45 and 60 minutes. The condition of bagasse is air dried basis. The result shows that the reduction process produced wustite (FeO).

Abstract: Composite films from sugarcane bagasse fibers (SBF), coconut coir fibers (CCF) and water hyacinth fibers (WHF)/poly (vinyl chloride) (PVC) were successfully fabricated by solvent-casting technique. Fibers were treated with sodium hydroxide alkali solution and followed by vinyltriethoxysilane solution. Both untreated fibers (USBF, UCCF, and UWHF) and treated fibers (TSBF, TCCF, and TWHF) were incorporated into PVC solutions at concentrations of 5-15% w/w based on total solid weight. The average diameters of TSBF, TCCF, and TWHF were 145±17 μm, 164±15 μm, and 128±12 μm, respectively. Tensile strengths of PVC/treated fibers were higher than those of PVC/untreated fibers. Tensile strength, tensile modulus, and elongation at break of composite films were lower than those of neat PVC films. In case of PVC/TSBF and PVC/TCCF, tensile strength and modulus were decreased, whereas, these properties of PVC/TWHF were increased with increasing amount of fibers. Among these composite films, PVC/15TWHF had the highest tensile strength and modulus which were 7.1±0.2 and 350±27 MPa, respectively. Composite films of PVC/15TSBF, PVC/15TCCF, and PVC/15TWHF were thermally stable than the neat PVC film. The amounts of water absorption of composite films were increased with time and with increasing amount of fibers. The results showed the potential for using PVC/natural fiber composite films in packaging application in which the tensile strength and tensile modulus were comparable to that of conventional film such as low density polyethylene (LDPE).

Abstract: In this research, the alkaline treated and untreated sugarcane bagasse was used as reinforcement with unsaturated polyester to make composites. The composites were made with 0 to 20 weight percentage of fibers using compression molding. Acoustical, dielectrical and mechanical properties of the composites were studied according to the American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM) standards. The result shows that the composites with higher sugarcane bagasse loading show higher acoustical and dielectrical properties. The composites tensile strength increased up to 10wt% of fiber loading and then starts decreasing eventually. Tensile strength and sound absorption coefficients of alkali treated fiber composites shown slightly better results than untreated fiber composites. The dielectric constant of treated fiber composites were lower compared with untreated fiber composites.

Abstract: This work presents the thermodynamic, thermoeconomic, and economic analyses of utilization of waste materials from industrial processes of a modern Brazilian sugarcane mill (bagasse, straw and vinasse) for energy production. The first case considers a conventional steam thermal power plant constituted, among other equipment, by a steam boiler of high-pressure and high-temperature and by an extraction-condensation steam turbine, being all mechanical driving electrified, and using just bagasse as fuel. The second case considers a modified steam thermal power plant in which is incorporated systems to be possible the utilization of straw and vinasse as complementary fuel to bagasse by means of a combined cycle, with the addition of a gas turbine and a heat recovery steam generator, among other equipment.

Abstract: The improvement in impact properties of wood plastic composite from acrylate-styrene-acrylonitrile (ASA) and bagasse was reported in this work. The effect of type and content of impact modifier by using styrene-butadiene-rubber (SBR) and ethylene-acrylic acid (EAA) as impact modifier on morphology and mechanical properties of wood plastic composite were investigated. Wood plastic composites, prepared from ASA and 50 phr of bagasse by varying amount of impact modifier (both SBR and EAA) from 0-40 wt% of ASA were prepared by melt-blending technique. All materials were mixed by using a two-roll-mill, shaped into sheets by a compression molding machine and specimens were cut with a cutting machine. Then, the obtained materials were characterized, including morphology, impact strength and flexural properties. From SEM micrographs showed that wood plastic composites with using SBR as impact modifier showed more compatible with ASA matrix than EAA. This is a consistency results with mechanical properties such as impact properties, which indicated that the impact strength was improved with increasing the amount of SBR from 0-40 wt% of ASA. However, wood plastic composite with EAA showed the reduction of impact strength. So, it could be demonstrated from this study that the most appropriate impact modifier for wood plastic composite from ASA and bagasse was styrene-butadiene-rubber.

Abstract: Environmental-friendly wood-based panels with low resin content were developed by adding a small amount of phenol formaldehyde (PF) resin and water-repellent paraffin to effectively control the release of free formaldehyde and thickness swelling of the boards. This research was designed to investigate the relations between the various manufacturing conditions and product properties, the effects of board desity, resin content and paraffin content on modulus of elasticity, modulus of rupture, internal bond strength and thickness swelling of the boards were demonstrated. Finally we reach a conclusion: under the pressing pressure of 5MPa, pressing temperature 180°C, pressing time 7min, resin content 3% and paraffin content 1.5%, the panel with a density of 0.7 g/cm³ can meet the national standard GB/T 4897.2-2003—for general purpose particleboards used in dry conditions. So it is possible to develop the environmental-friendly wood-based panel with low formaldehyde emission.

Abstract: Due to a high ethanol demand, the approach for effective ethanol production is important and has been developed rapidly worldwide. Several agricultural wastes are highly abundant in celluloses and the effective cellulase enzymes do exist widely among microorganisms. Accordingly, the cellulose degradation using microbial cellulase to produce a low-cost substrate for ethanol production has attracted more attention. In this study, the cellulase producing bacterial strain has been isolated from rich straw and identified by 16S rDNA sequence analysis as Acinetobacter sp. KKU44. This strain is able to grow and exhibit the cellulase activity. The optimal temperature for its growth and cellulase production is 37 °C. The optimal temperature of bacterial cellulase activity is 60 °C. The cellulase enzyme from Acinetobacter sp. KKU44 is heat-tolerant enzyme. The bacterial culture of 36 h. showed highest cellulase activity at 120 U/mL when grown in LB medium containing 2% (w/v). The capability of Acinetobacter sp. KKU44 to grow in cellulosic agricultural wastes as a sole carbon source and exhibiting the high cellulase activity at high temperature suggested that this strain could be potentially developed further as a cellulose degrading strain for a production of low-cost substrate used in ethanol production.