Isolation and characterization of cellulose and α-cellulose from date palm biomass waste

Emmanuel Galiwango; Nour S Abdel Rahman; Ali H Al-Marzouqi; Mahdi M Abu-Omar; Abbas A Khaleel

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02937

Isolation and characterization of cellulose and α-cellulose from date palm biomass waste

Heliyon. 2019 Dec 24;5(12):e02937. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02937. eCollection 2019 Dec.

Authors

Emmanuel Galiwango¹, Nour S Abdel Rahman¹, Ali H Al-Marzouqi¹, Mahdi M Abu-Omar², Abbas A Khaleel³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, United Arab Emirates University, P. O. Box 15551, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates.
² Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Biochemistry, UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106-9510, USA.
³ Department of Chemistry, United Arab Emirates University, P. O. Box 15551, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates.

Abstract

Towards the utilization of different parts of date palm biomass waste, low-concentration acid-alkali treatment was used to isolate the contained cellulose and α-cellulose. The cellulose yields achieved from the rachis, leaflet, and fiber parts of the biomass were 74.70%, 71.50%, and 73.82%, respectively, while the corresponding α-cellulose yields were 78.63%, 75.64%, and 70.40%, respectively. The cellulose samples were bleached and characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The XRD results revealed high crystallinity of both the cellulose and α-cellulose samples, while the TGA thermograms indicated that the alkali treatment completely removed lignin and hemicelluloses from the rachis. The results of this study demonstrate the promise of using date palm biomass waste as raw material to produce cellulose and α-cellulose.

Keywords: Agriculture; Cellulose; Characterization; Chemical engineering; Date palm parts; Energy; Isolation; Materials chemistry; Natural product chemistry; α-Cellulose.