Utilization of sugarcane bagasse and banana midrib mixture as raw materials for paper making using acetosolve method

Paper making requires raw materials with high cellulose and hemicellulose content. The alternative materials that can be used in the paper making are sugarcane bagasse and banana midrib. The paper production method used in this study is acetosolve which involves acetic acid as an organic solvent. The objectives of this research are to figure out the acetic acid concentration in delignification process and the ratio between sugarcane bagasse and banana midrib that produce pulp with the highest yield, cellulose and kappa number. In this research, there are some variables, the first is the levels of acetic acid concentration in delignification process, which are 70%, 75%, 80%, 85%, 90%, the second is the ratio between sugarcane bagasse and banana midrib, which are 20:0, 18:2, 16:4, 14:6, 12:8, 10:10. The results show that the best pulping conditions are found to be 80% acetic acid concentration with 12:8 (w/w) ratio between sugarcane bagasse and banana midrib, and also 1:20 (w/v) ratio between raw material and solution of acetic acid at two hours cooking duration. The highest yield of pulp in acetosolve process was 63.1%, and its characteristics are 84.67% of cellulose and 10.44 kappa number.