Investigation of Chemical Analysis and Physical Properties of Bio-polymer Waste Banana Peel Fibre Composite

Abstract

The present work has investigate the conversion of waste banana peel fiber (WBP) a raw a material in the form of food industry wastes into value added bio-polymer which can be replaced synthetic plastics. WBP represent around 85% of the total by products generated from the brewing industry and is available in large quantities throughout the year; however its primary application has been limited to animal feed. Despite this, due to its chemical composition, it has value as lignocellulosic rich material. In this paper, raw WBP has undergone physical and chemical characterisation to determine the composition analysis of extractives, cellulose and lignocellulose of WBP. WBP fiber contains a high moisture content (approx. 75 wt. %). Then, it will be process into form of composite by added of variety glycerol content (0, 10, 20, 30 and 40 grams) mixed on a dry weight basis of WBP. The solution was premixed and then heated from room temperature to 80°C, where it was maintained for 1 h while being constantly mixing. The solution was then allowed to cool at 40 °C, and then, the glycerol was added to the gelatinized suspension. The suspension was then vigorously mixing for 45 min. The mixed suspensions were immediately poured onto a aluminium-nylon mesh mold to form a composite thin film. The films were then pressed with heat press machine at 120°C for 5 minutes. The composites will dried for 24 h in an ambient room temperature in dessicator at about 37 °C until they reached a constant weight. The thickness of the films was controlled by the addition of the same weight of suspension into a dish of same size. The final thickness of the film was about 0.20 mm. This research were focus on the chemical analysis of WBP fiber where it can determine the extractives, halocellulose, lignin and α-cellulose. Then, the WBP fiber composite film were tested for physical properties analysis which were the thickness and density, moisture content, water solubility, water absorption and thickness swelling, porosity and contact angle (CA). This work shows that glycerol can strongly affect the functional properties of WBP fiber based composite