Microcrystalline Cellulose - A Review

Abstract

Incinaration is one of the most popular method of solid agricultural waste management. The most valuable aspect of development of microcrystalline cellulose is conversion of waste materials into a value added products. Each year, farming and agricultural processing generate millions of tons of wastes, such as corn cobs and husks, groundnut shells, rice straw, sugarcane bagasse, banana stems, soy hulls, jute industrial waste and sugar beet pulp. These agricultural residues, industrial wastes and other waste material from the plants are considered as the raw materials for making of microcrystalline cellulose. These biomasses are pre treated either mechanically or chemically for the reduction of particle size. This reduced mass is further treated chemically or biologically for the removal of hemicellulose, lignin and other impurities. Then the pure alpha cellulose is hydrolysed by either mineral acids or enzymes for the synthesis of microcrystalline cellulose. The odourless, colourless material is then characterised by FTIR, particle size distribution, degree of polymerization, wide angle crystallography, SEM, XPS, POM etc for the confirmation of microcrystalline structure. The presence of large number of hydroxyl groups in the structure and due to the excellent direct compressible property it is mostly used in pharmaceutical industry as a filler material. According to size and shape of the material it has wide application in cosmetic and toothpaste, food, paint and powder coating industry, welding electrode, ceramics and sanitary ware and textiles.