Banana midrib as substitute for pulp production

Abstract

Short cooking time produces a small amount of cellulose in the pulp production, while a long cooking time causes the cellulose content in the pulp to become damaged. Cooking temperature that is too low produces a small amount of cellulose in the pulp, while the cooking temperature that is too high will damage the cellulose content in the pulp. The faster the stirring the more lignin apart from cellulose, the lower the cellulose content due to weakening of the saccharide bond in cellulose, the lower the yield produced because the product dissolves more and more. In this study, the parameters chosen were cooking time diversity (40, 50, 60, 70, and 80 minutes), cooking temperature (80, 90, 100, 110 and 120 °C), and stirring speed (20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 rpm). Analysis of water, ash, cellulose, lignin content and tensile strength was carried out as pulp quality testing in this study. It turns out that from the results of the study, the optimum value was obtained at 90 °C cooking temperature with pulp yield of 64.09%, water content of 16%, ash content of 2.5%, cellulose content of 73%, lignin content of 8.5%, and tensile strength 1.96 kN/m2.