ISOLATION, QUANTIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF MICROCELLULOSE FROM AGRICULTURAL WASTES

Abstract

With continuous progress in effective research, microcellulose is slowly emerging as a low cost, non-toxic and superior compound which bears the potential to be exploited in numerous industries. Microcellulose is primarily extracted from wood and woody residues, however, with growing ecological concerns, the focus has been shifted towards searching for more sustainable alternatives. Agricultural wastes appear to be the most suitable agents for facilitating the process of cellulose synthesis. India alone generates more than 350 million tonnes of agricultural waste every year, which generates additional burden on society and hampers development. Thus, the utilization of agricultural wastes for microcellulose synthesis can emerge as a two-way approach which converts wastes to resources and simultaneously facilitates the low cost synthesis of industrially useful compounds. The presented study elucidates the isolation of microcellulose from agricultural wastes i.e. rice husk and pomegranate peel and its subsequent quantification and characterization using FTIR analysis and particle-size distribution analysis. Cellulose could be isolated only from rice husk for which, the characterization studies confirmed the presence of abundant cellulose in the isolated sample along with significant removal of lignin and hernicellulose. Particle size distribution analysis revealed the size of particles to be around 13 micrometers, thus affirming the reduction of cellulose particles to micro size.