Diseño de un proceso industrial para la obtención de celulosa microcristalina a partir del Pennisetum purpureum mediante combinación de hidrólisis ácida y alcalina para la Asociación Agropecuaria “Maconta Arriba”.

Abstract

The objective was to design an industrial process to obtain microcrystalline cellulose from Pennisetum Purpureum through a combination of acid and alkaline hydrolysis. The raw material was characterized by physical-chemical methods according to the standards of the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI), with results of moisture 79.2%, ash 13.30%, hemicellulose 29.75%, lignin 9.53%, cellulose 37.26% and extractable substances 20.61% in weight percentage. 2%, ash 13.30%, hemicellulose 29.75%, lignin 9.53%, cellulose 37.26%, and extractable substances 20.61% in weight percentage. To obtain microcrystalline cellulose, a two- factor multifactorial design was proposed in which sodium hydroxide concentrations of 10%, 20%, and 30% in alkaline hydrolysis were varied with sodium hypochlorite concentrations (2% and 5%) for pulp bleaching, taking cellulose yield and purity as response variables. The treatment that presented the highest efficiency in yield (37.95%) and cellulose purity (74.74%) according to the ANOVA and TUKEY test results, was the treatment with 20% sodium hydroxide and 5% sodium hypochlorite at 5%. The physicochemical properties of the final product are ash 1.8%, cellulose purity 74.74%, moisture 4.3%, pH 6.8, particle size 0.1050 mm, insolubility in CH3COOH 20%, NaClO 5%, H2SO4 15%, HCl 10%, ethanol 98% and water, according to its characteristics it cannot be considered food or pharmaceutical grade, but the possibility of study in industrial fields other than those mentioned is left open. The process design was carried out in the function of 500 kg/day, continuous type, obtaining 21.64 kg/day of microcrystalline cellulose.