Proximate chemical analysis and effect of age and height of Oxytenanthera abyssinica on fiber morphology and chemical compositions for pulp and paper production potential

Abstract

This study examined the chemical composition, fiber morphology, and physical properties of Oxytenanthera abyssinica culm to assess its pulping potential. TAPPT and Franklin's methods have been used for experiments. The statistical analysis showed that the chemical composition of Oxytenanthera abyssinica is influenced by the age of the plant.The amount of cellulose in the culm increases with age, while ash and extractive content decrease with an increase in age. Thethree-year agedaverage chemical content of the plant was 49.26 ± 0.13, 21.31 ± 0.15, and 20.63 ± 0.12 cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin contents respectively. There is a significant difference between one, two, and three-year-aged plants (P < 0.05) in cellulose, lignin, ash, and extractive content. The position of the culm also affectsthe fiber morphology of Oxytenanthera abyssinica. The fiber's length, diameter, cell wall thickness, and lumen diameter increase from top to bottom, whereas the flexibility and slenderness ratio decrease. The average fiber morphology of Oxytenanthera abyssinica was flexibility ratio (0.72 ± 0.10), Runkel ratio (0.35 ± 0.10), slenderness ratio (109.98 ± 0.21), lumen diameter (15.63 ± 0.03 µm), cell wall thickness (2.74 ± 0.03 µm), fiber length (2.40 ± 0.10 mm) and fiber diameter (21.83 ± 0.09 µm). The above data showed that the mean value of the fiber length of the plant is greater than 1.5mm, the Runkel ratio was less than 1, and the slenderness ratio was greater than 70 standard values. The result also showed that the average bulk density and the moisture content were 660 kg/m3 and 9.6%, respectively. Although Oxytenanthera abyssinica is widely grown in the study area, no comprehensivestudies have been carried out on fiber morphology, chemical composition, and physical properties based on age and height. Thus, this research was carried out to study the plant's fiber characteristics to assess its suitability for pulp and paper production.Based on the above data, the three-year aged bottom part of Oxytenanthera abyssinica is recommended for moreyield of pulp and high-quality paper production than the first and second-year aged plant.

Starch biocomposites preparation by incorporating organosolv lignins from potato crop residues

“…These results align with findings reported in other studies, which showed that presence of lignins in starch/pectin blend films [58] and carboxymethyl cellulose-lignin enhanced the antioxidant activity of the matrix [67]. Antioxidant activity of 88.74% was evidenced by Worku et al [68] after adding lignins nanoparticles to polyvinyl alcohol/chitosan films, which was slightly higher, as compared to the achieved value for OPL-11% in this work. Lignins generally exhibited a similar effect on the antioxidant activity of the films in previous studies, and variations in the obtained values may be attributed to differences in the lignin extraction processes used in various studies and the resulting lignin structures [69].…”