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Pineapple leaves and oil palm fronds are the main potential biomass source in Indonesia, where they grow in large quantities. Both of them are contain of high cellulose that can be transformed into cellulose nano fibril (CNF). In this study, CNF from bleached pineapple leaf pulp and bleached oil palm frond pulp was obtained by mechanical treatment using Masuko Sangyo ultrafine grinder. Moreover, CNF-P (CNF from pineapple leaves) and CNF-O (CNF from oil palm fronds) were analyzed for their properties of zeta potential, rheology, and morphology. Determination of lignocellulose content in the bleached pineapple leaf pulp and bleached oil palm fronds pulp were also done in this study. For the results, the cellulose content of bleached pineapple leaf pulp is higher than the bleached oil palm fronds pulp, which is 64,68% and 59,11%. The characteristics ofCNF-P are it has a white color in the suspension, a low zeta potential (-52,6 mV), and a high viscosity (131,68 mPa.s-1). While characteristics ofCNF-O are it has a light brown suspension, the zeta potential of-41,6 mV, and 114,11 mPa.s-1 of the viscosity. Both CNF-P and CNF-O have an average fiber diameter of 50 nm and have a good stability emulsion. The physicochemical properties of CNF is depend on the material source using produced the CNF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper-based food packaging serves to maintain product quality for a longer period. The addition of nanocellulose as a coating agent on paper can improve the quality of the recycled paper. Modification of nanocellulose with Al3+ can occur due to the interaction between Al3+ ions and the electrostatic negative surface charge of nanocellulose which can degrade microbial cells. Modification of nanocellulose was carried out by soaking it in AlCl3 solution then homogenized by an ultrasonic wave which was used for defibrillation of nanocellulose and encourage crosslinking of nanocellulose and Al3+ ions. The paper coating technique uses a deep coating by immersing the paper in modified nanocellulose suspension. The variations of AlCl3 concentration used were 0.01, 0.05, 0.1, and 0.15 N as much as 25 ml on 1 g dry base nanocellulose. The concentrations of nanocellulose used were 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2 g in 25 ml of Al3+ solution. The results of paper water absorption and WVTR test showed that modified nanocellulose can reduce the absorption of water vapor and water absorption from the paper, so it has water resistance. Nanocellulose coated can increase the hydrophobicity of the paper based on contact angle test. Antimicrobial test on coating paper also showed antimicrobial activity on E.coli test bacteria and not on S. aureus bacteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanocellulose was used as an alginate reinforcement agent to immobilize laccase enzyme and mycelia from Trametes hirsuta EDN 082 in the dye decolorization process. Herein, we used two forms of nanocellulose: negatively charged (Neg) and non-charged (NC) nanocelluloses. Nanocellulose optimization was performed with various nanocellulose concentrations (0%, 0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6%, 0.8%, and 1%, v/v). The concentration of alginate and CaCl2, as a crosslinker, used were 1.5% and 0.1 M (v/v), respectively. The decolorization process was performed using 2 U/mL laccase enzyme with 2 g beads per 20 mL of 100 ppm methylene blue (MB). The optimization results showed that the use of 0.2% nanocellulose formed non-tailed spherical beads with an immobilization efficiency of 47.3% and 51.2% for alginate-negative (Alg-Neg) nanocellulose and alginate-non charged (Alg-NC) nanocellulose beads, respectively. However, the addition of nanocellulose, either negatively or non-charged, did not enhance the decolorization of immobilized laccase and mycelia significantly. The highest decolorization activity of methylene blue was achieved using laccase immobilized in alginate only (78.9%) after 3 hours of reaction time. Meanwhile, immobilization of laccase in Alg-Neg nanocellulose and alg-NC nanocellulose only showed 75% and 76.2% of decolorization efficiency, respectively. By contrast, immobilized fungi in Alg-Neg nanocellulose and alg-NC nanocellulose only decolorized 43.9% and 58.7% MB after 72 hours of reaction time, which was lower than the decolorization of immobilized fungi in alginate only (62.4%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research aims to prepare a lignin-based hydrogel in which the lignin was isolated from black liquor. Black liquor resulted as a by-product of oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) biomass waste pre-treatment. Lignin was isolated by treating with strong acid, hydrochloric acid, at various pH variations. The highest lignin isolation results were obtained at a variety of pH 2. This was indicated by the relatively higher lignin purity and yield, around 88-92% and 0.4-0.5%, respectively. The hydrogel was made by adding 1-5 ml of epichlorohydrin to a mixture of 1-5 %w/v lignin solution with agarose. There were five variations of the hydrogel produced in this study. The optimum result was obtained for hydrogel products A1 with the results of the morphology of homogenous distribution, compressive tests were around 0.09 MPa and the transition temperature was about 97.59°C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]