Applied Mechanics and Materials Submitted: 2014-08-20

ISSN: 1662-7482, Vols. 773-774, pp 1215-1219 Accepted: 2015-01-10

doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.773-774.1215 Online: 2015-07-15
© 2015 The Author(s). Published by Trans Tech Publications Ltd, Switzerland.

Analysis by Pineapple Leaf in Chemical Pulping Process

Zawawi Daud1, a, Mohd Zainuri Mohd Hatta2,b , Angzzas Sari Mohd Kassim3,c,
Ashuvila Mohd Kassim4,d and, Halizah Awang5,e
1,2
Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400
Parit Raja, Batu Pahat, Johor Malaysia
3,4
Faculty of Engineering Technology, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400 Parit Raja,
Batu Pahat, Johor Malaysia
5
Faculty of Technical and Vocational Education, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400 Parit
Raja, Batu Pahat, Johor Malaysia
a
zawawi@uthm.edu.my, bmzainuri88@gmail.com, chalizah@uthm.edu.my,

Keywords: Fiber, Pineapple leaf, Green technology, Pulp and paper making.

With a proper planning and management, the agriculture waste material can give benefit to many
production industries. The studied crop is pineapple (Ananas Comosus) leaf. The objective of this
work was to analysis the chemical pulping and papermaking properties of pineapple leaf and; to
investigate the fiber morphology of properties of those crops. At first, chemical pulping of pineapple
leaf was conducted in this analysis followed the physical and mechanical properties. The result
showed that in chemical pulping, reached 79.26% pulp yields had been produced and the strength
properties: tear index, tensile index, burst and fold verified that they were of an acceptable quality
for papermaking. This crop morphology was observed by Scanning Electron Microscopic (SEM),
which showed a condensed composition of fiber structure. This study can promote the green
technology in developing a friendly product and suitable to be used as an alternative pulp in paper
making industry.

INTRODUCTION

Malaysia has an abundance of agro waste material that have not been fully utilized to a
maximum production. Thus, the finding of a new alternative fiber in non wood material will be
favorable in paper production. Pineapple (Ananas Comosus) is the common tropical plant, which
consists of coalesced berries. This pineapple is leading member of the family of Bromeliaceae and
it came from genus Ananas. Fiber bundle from pineapple leaf can be separated from the cortex
where it reveals the pineapple leaf fiber in multi-cellular and lignocelluloses pattern. This leaf has a
ribbon-like structure and cemented together by lignin, pentosan-like materials, where it contributes
to the strength of fiber [7]. All parts in pineapple from fruits to leaves could be consumed to give a
health benefit for human life.. Leaves of pineapple had been used as coarse textiles because of the
fiber composition and structure inside the leaves [3]. All fibrous in non wood materials especially
pineapple leaf consists of cellulose, holocellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin along with some
extraneous material called extractives such as gum and resin. Pineapple leaf fibers also consist of
lignin [23], an adhesive component that binds the cellulose and hemicellulose. Pineapple leaf fiber
had the lowest lignin content than other alternative fiber, which is favorable during chemical
processing [12]. The chemical composition aspects have been considered in the previous literature,
such as banana stem, coconut and oil palm and had been reported extensively. Pineapple leaf
reported has a lowest lignin (10.5%) rather than banana stem (18.6%), oil palm (20.5%) and
coconut (32.8%) that suggest can undergo bleaching more easily and have high fiber strength
[12].Those properties depend on the content of chemical composition in the pineapple leaf fiber,
which is cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin content [15].
Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analysis the chemical compositions and to
determine the chemical pulping and papermaking properties of pineapple leaf.

This article is an open access article under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)
1216 International Integrated Engineering Summit 2014

METHODOLOGY

Preparation of samples. Pineapple leaf material is collected from Air Hitam, Johor. The prepared
sample undergoes TAPPI Method T264 om-97 before analyses of chemical composition in
pineapple leaf.

Chemical pulping. The sample will be cut into small pieces pressed until the fibbers from the non-
wood material were coming out. The cooking condition for both processes can be indicated in the
table below in digester autoclave. The partially delignified pulps obtained were washed with water
to neutralize the reaction. Then, the pulps will be disintegrated and pressurize the moisten soda
pulps for fibrillation until the freeness of the fiber of soda pulps. The formation of paper followed
TAPPI Method 205 om-8.

Table 1 Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) Pulping Process.

Item Soda Pulping

(NaOH)
Concentration (%) 15
Cooking time (min) 90
Cooking temperature (oC) 170
Liquor to wood ratio 7

Paper Properties. A set of paper-sheets (60g/m2) were made from the pulp of sample in one
attempt according to Tappi T205 and keep overnight in a conditioning room in accordance with
Tappi T402. The tensile and tear index were measured according to Tappi T494 and T414. The
burst index of papers was also measured according Tappi T403. Besides that, Tappi T511 was used
to measure the fold of the paper sample.

Surface Observation. The samples were observed under a Scanning Electron Microscope, SEM to
study its fiber morphological properties.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Pulping Process.The main performances from the highly rated pulping are the screen pulp yield
and quality of fiber sheets that were produced. The chemical pulp yields are shown in table 3. The
condition of the cooking process had been set shows an optimization for this pineapple leaf fiber for
chemical cooking process (15% sodium hydroxide, a liquor ratio 7:1 at 1700C for 90 minutes). The
high pulp yield depends on the charge concentration, cooking time, cooking temperature and type
of the pulping process [25]. Pineapple leaf gives almost of fully percentage pulp in this charge of
the condition (above 70% of pulp yield). However, there were still having lots of pulps in this
chemical cooking process. Alkali catalyzed reaction is mainly being responsible for the lost of the
pulp yield during alkaline pulping of lignocellulosic [1]. The cooking process also affects the fiber
length, coarseness and fines content [19]. This has slightly happened because of the condition of the
cooking process and type of cooking process itself.

Papermaking Properties. The mechanical properties of pulp sheets are reported in table 3. These
properties include the measurement of tear index, tensile index, burst index, folding endurance and
tear index. s seen from the Table 3, pineapple leaf fibers have a good condition to become a quality
paper production. Tensile index and tear index were probably the main used for the direct
measurement of the paper strength. Tensile and tearing are some of the mostly used for testing the
properties of natural fiber [7].
 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols. 773-774 1217

Table 3 Properties of Pineapple Leaf Chemical Pulping fiber.

Pulp Yield Tensile Tear Index Burst Index Folding

Sample (%) Index (Nm2/g) (kPa*m2/g) (Nm)
(Nm/g)
Pineapple Leaf 79.26 2.03 7.92 1.28 1.23
(This study)
Date Palm Rachis 94.00 1.09 4.40 1.32 n.a.
[11]
Palmyra fruit 40.70 13.80 1.12 n.a. n.a.
[25]
*n.a. Not available

From this study, a pineapple leaf sheet of paper has a tensile index of 2.03 Nm/g, which is
between the Date Palm rachis (1.09 Nm/g) and Palmyra fruit (13.8 Nm/g). However, pineapple leaf
was ahead of tear index (7.92 Nm2/g) beside Date Palm rachis (4.4 Nm2/g) and Palmyra fruit (1.12
Nm2/g). High tensile strength given tear index higher because the behavior between both tear and
tensile index is contrarily (Tran 2006), where it respectively showed the interfiber bonding strength
is high. The strength of properties of the sheets of paper was correlated to interfiber bonding [5].
The fiber strength is directly proportional to cellulose content for fiber pulp by cooking process
where it determines the strength properties of the paper that were being produced [8].
Pineapple leaf gives a good of burst index about 1.28 kPa*m2/g rather but Date palm rachis
was a little high about 1.32 kPa*m2/g. However, pineapple leaf paper properties still in a good
range for a paper quality. The result from burst strength shows how strong the paper from pineapple
leaf material. Bursting strength was done for rupture of the paper material when consistently
increases the pressure as the maximum hydrostatic pressure [24]. For folding test, pineapple leaf
gives 1.23 Nm the strength of folding endurance from the test pineapple leaf papermaking. High
quality test of folding endurance shows how the paper can have a maximum of fold where have an
advantage to become a tissue paper with a tiny density (Shahani 1994).

Morphological Analysis. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses pineapple leaf fiber (Fig.
1) by a cross-section (a) and the fiber (b). The SEM micrographs of cross section (Fig. 1b) analysis
show a fibrillation on the surface of non wood fiber, pineapple leaf. From this cross-section, the
fibrillation beside the non wood material can be seen. This fibrillation can attribute to the removal
of lignin and other structural effects [17]. This morphology reveals the presence of lumen where is
surround the cell wall of those materials [16]. By using SEM, the strength of fiber can be seen with
the arrangement and a pack of the matrix fiber. The arrangement and pack will also affect the paper
production in their strength and quality (Narenda and Yiqi 2005).

a b
Fig. 1. Pineapple Leaf fiber (a) Cross-section (b) surface of the fiber by Scanning Electron
Microscopy (SEM).
1218 International Integrated Engineering Summit 2014

The condensed fiber is significance to the structure of the paper produced from the non
wood material [24, 18]. Matrix fiber and their arrangement of fiber make the fiber more strength
where the quality of pulp and paper can be produced [25]. This could increase the fiber strength and
the quality of the paper produced [9].

CONCLUSIONS

Pineapple leaf fiber becomes a favorite to become a highly potential of substitute fiber in paper
production. Pineapple leafs as non wood material have a characteristic in becoming paper making
production same as wood fiber. Favourable high amount of cellulose content and low lignin content
could give a high quality of pulp and paper making production from pineapple leaf to become an
alternative in pulp and paper making. Mechanical properties test (Tensile index, Tear index, Burst
index and Fold test) shows a high of measurement where have a same property with wood material.
Furthermore, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis shows the condensed arrangement of
fiber, which from a strong fiber structure of pineapple leaf. At last, this abundance Malaysia’s agro
waste material can become an effective source and has a high potential for alternative fiber in paper
making industry.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was supported by Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia and scholarship
from Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM). The authors are thankful for this financial
support.

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