Preliminary Study on the Effect of Bleaching Treatment on Cellulose Extracts from Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch

Oil palm empty fruit bunch fibre (OPEFB) is a waste from palm oil mill. It is rich in useful compound residues such as cellulose and carboxymethylcellulose. The increasing interest in OPEFB as a source of cellulose is due to its low cost, renewable and abundantly available, particularly in the Southeast Asia region. Cellulose extraction is affected by pre-treatment, especially during the bleaching process. Thus, this study aims to analyse the effect of bleaching period and treatment using NaClO2 on cellulose recovery from OPEFB. Batch process of bleaching was carried out in the ratio of 1:50 of fibres to sodium chlorite (NaClO2) solution of 0.7%. This was followed by analysis of cellulose morphological using FTIR and SEM analysis. The study found that bleaching duration affects cellulose recovery, with the highest yield of 54% found to be at 3 hours of bleaching duration. The bleaching duration was increased up to 6 hours, but found to yield less cellulose, which indicated that certain duration is suitable to provide a condition for higher cellulose yield.