Bio-Mass Material as a Source of Micro-crystalline Cellulose by Strong Acid Treatments

Abstract

Due to environmental concerns agro-waste material namely wheat straw (WS) will be utilized to produce microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) via mercerization, bleaching and strong acid hydrolysis. The current investigation compared MCC produced by phosphoric acid (H3NPO4), sulfuric acid (H2SO4) and hydrochloric acid (HCL). The percentage yield of each process were compared and found to be the highest for the H3PO4 compared H2SO4 and HCL. The morphology of the three products was viewed under scanning electron microscope (SEM). The heat of dissolution was studied for the three samples, and found to be the highest for the H3PO4, which is in line with %yield. This is also indicative that the chemical attack on the amorphous regions was the highest for H3PO4. I.