Activated Carbon and Coconut Coir with the Incorporation of ABR System as Greywater Filter: The Implications for Wastewater Treatment

The Effect of Varying the HCl Solution on the Purity, Morphological, and Electrical Properties of Silicon Dioxide Extracted from Rice Straw

Rice straw is a waste product from rice manufacturing that contains cellulose (32–47%), hemicellulose (19-27%), lignin (5–24%), and ash (13–20%). The ash form consists of a large percentage of silicon dioxide (SiO2) with widespread use in the industrial field. The extraction of silicon dioxide has been conducted using the sol-gel and ashing method combined with the leaching process using an acid solution such as hydrochloric acid (HCl) at a concentration of 3%. In using HCl with a concentration of 3%, impurities are often found in the SiO2 sample. Therefore, this study uses the leaching method with HCl of several variations (3%, 5%, and 7%). By raising the concentration of HCl in this process, the quality of SiO2 without impurities is increased. The results indicate that increasing the concentration of HCl can significantly lower the sample’s impurity content. In the 3% treatment, impurities were found in the form of Carbon and Calcium. The treatment obtained no impurities using 5% and 7% HCl concentrations. As a result, the highest purity of SiO2 obtained was 89.31% in the 5% HCl treatment. The sample treated with 5% HCl was in the semiconductor region and exhibited an amorphous structure.

Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunches as Raw Material of Dissolving Pulp for Viscose Rayon Fiber in Making Textile Products

The creative fashion industry produces several textile products that play an important role in the national economy. In various countries, this industry has continued to grow along with the strong flow of information technology and e-commerce. The development of textile products for fashion is very dynamic and competitive. Competition is not only about price, but also the quality of organic/synthetic materials, the comfort provided, and designs that change every 4−6 months. Recently, creative fashion not only relies on natural and synthetic polymer-made fibers but also biomass-based waste materials. Therefore, this study aims to manufacture textile products from biomass-based waste materials that can be applied to the creative fashion industry. Two types of raw materials from oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB), namely, whole-empty fruit bunches (WEFB) and stalk-empty fruit bunches (SEFB), are used as an excellent innovation of rayon viscose fiber (RVF), a noncotton organic yarn capable of providing a solution to the 99% import of global cotton needs. This is expected to increase competitiveness, as well as the added value of palm oil products and their derivatives. The process of manufacturing DP chemically includes prehydrolysis, cooking, bleaching to dissolve the lignin and noncellulosic materials as well as isolation to purify POEFB fiber. Furthermore, DP testing is carried out to determine product quality and compare it with the national product standards. The results show that the alpha-cellulose content reaches >94% with variations in the active alkali of 18%, 20% and 24%. This implies that the WEFB and SEFB are used to fulfill the first requirements of the national standard (SNI 938:2017). The WEFB with an active alkali variation of 24% meets the SNI standard for rayon pulp with a value of S10 = 3.07 and S18 = 7.14%, while all variations of SEFB show opposite results. The use of active alkali at 24% had a brighter color than between 18% and 20%. Additionally, the fiber density of WEFB appears to be higher than that of SEFB. These results correlate positively with DP prepared using 24% alkali as the optimum treatment for all products, as well as the morphological observations performed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), which shows that WEFB fixated fiber had a larger diameter than SEFB.

Sugarcane Bagasse as the Source of Nanocrystalline Cellulose for Gelatin-Free Capsule Shell

Gelatin-free capsules are possibly produced through an innovation which involves utilizing environmentally friendly materials derived from plants such as bagasse which are produced into nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC). This research was conducted to report the extraction and characterization of NCC from the abundant industrial plantation waste of sugarcane and its application as the base material for gelatin-free capsule shell material. The process involved using different concentrations of NCC at 1%, 2%, 4%, and 7% (in wt. %) with the addition of 1% hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) (in wt. %) and 1% carbopol (in wt. %). Moreover, the NCC capsules obtained from sugarcane bagasse were tested for moisture content, tensile strength, elongation, solubility, and pH. The results showed that sugarcane bagasse contains 40-50% cellulose, 6.15%-9.5% moisture content which indicates they are potentially better in terms of storage, 7.25-7.85 pH, and 0.05-0.136 MPa gel strength, and the elongation value ranges from 7.19 to 87.51%. These values were discovered to have satisfied the standard requirements as indicated by the optimal concentration of 4% NCC +1% HPMC, which is in line with the Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS), thereby leading to the consideration of the material safe to be used as raw material in making capsule shells.