Evaluation of properties of microcrystalline cellulose produced from bagasse fibers using hydrochloric acid

Microcrystalline cellulose is one of the important cellulose products widely used in pharmaceutical, food, cosmetic, and other industries, and Iran imports the whole Microcrystalline cellulose needs of its industries. In this study, bagasse was pulverized using the soda method, then bleached and residual impurities were removed to produce high-quality and pure cellulose microcrystals. The resulting bleached pulp was converted to alpha-cellulose using the cold soda method. Microcrystalline cellulose was produced using 3, 5 and 7% hydrochloric acid concentrations relative to dry matter. Hydrolysis was performed at 120 ° C for 150 minutes. Then, various experiments were conducted to determine the physical characteristics of cellulose microcrystals, FT-IR, XRD, TGA device analysis and were compared with high-quality control sample 1. The results showed that bagasse fibers are not significantly different from imported high-quality samples, and this method is quite promising to produce cellulose microcrystals. Crystalline percentage of the control was 39 while treatments 3, 5, and 7 were 90, 85, and 86, respectively. TGA results showed that the produced MCCs from bagasse don’t have a significant difference from the control sample (imported products). Considering no picks at 1735 and 1512, the produced MCCs are pure with no presence of hemi cellulose or lignin. Additionally, physical properties of the produced MCCs were complying with USP standards.