Response Surface Design for Cellulose Production from Water Hyacinth to Synthesize Sodium Carboxymethyl Cellulose

摘要

Eichhornia crassipes of water hyacinth is a waterweed in Thailand and cause an environmental problem. However, the biochemical in biomass especially cellulose can be utilized as substrate for biochemical production. This research aims to investigate the optimal system for extracting alpha cellulose from water hyacinth by using response surface experimental design, and then synthesize carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC). The results show that solid-to-liquid ratio significantly increase alpha-cellulose yield (p < 0.05) rather than NaOH concentration and contact time. The optimal condition is one g of dried water hyacinth with 17.25 mL of 4.89%(w/v) of NaOH solution for 3 hours under 70°C, can yield 81.4% of alpha-cellulose in total extracted cellulose weight. Comparing the properties of water hyacinth CMC (WH-CMC) with commercial CMC (C-CMC), we found that the moisture content and the degrees of substitution of C-CMC were higher than WH-CMC, but the purity was lower than WH-CMC from cellulose that not bleached with hydrogen peroxide (unbleach WH-CMC). Unbleach WH-CMC are propably comparable with C-CMC.