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In this project banana pseudostems taken from the banana fiber plantation farm were fed into the banana fiber extractor machine purchased from ecogreen unit and banana fibers were extracted. Since the yield was low the banana fibers were directly ordered from the banana fiber supplier and taken to NIRJAFT (National Institute of Research on Jute and Allied Fibre Technology), Calcutta\/India, and converted into nonwovens using needlepunching and thermal bonding. These nonwovens can be marketed for usage in to avoid landslide near river since they meet fabric properties required for usage in to avoid land slide near river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Natural fibers have lot of advantages over synthetic fibers in terms of specific properties, biodegradability and ease of using wastage generated during fiber production. One of such natural fiber, which has lot of potential in terms of functionality and application, is banana fiber. In India, Banana contributes 37% to total fruit production and 20% area among the total area under crop. After harvesting, banana plant stems are thrown as a waste. These pseudo-stems have fiber bundles which can be used in textile products after proper extraction and processing. This also could be an extra income source for farmers cultivating banana plants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Banana fiber has peculiar cross-section which has hollow structure. This structure is generally sought for enhancing insulating properties of textile fabric. Needlepunched nonwovens made of banana fiber could be used in different areas like geobags, acoustic, heat insulation, car interiors, mats etc. Banana fiber has high strength and low elongation compared to polyester and polypropylene. The blending of banana fiber with polypropylene in needlepunched nonwovens would have effect on various fabric properties. Therefore, here the focus has given on extraction of banana fibers from pseudo stems of banana plant. Also, it includes the comparative properties of 100\u2009% banana nonwovens, 50:50 banana:PP and 75:25 banana:PP needlepunched nonwovens.
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![\"Fiber](\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2022\/02\/DKTE-Timble-Fig-2-83986-detail.png\")
Material<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Banana pseudo stems were collected from nearby farms and cut into 2 pieces. The layer from pseudo stems were peeled off and placed into the extractor machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Fiber Extractor; Fiber extractor machine was procured from ecogreen, Gurgaon\/India. After cutting the edges of pseudo stem layer, the layers were fed into the machine to extract fibers.<\/li>
- Fiber retting<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
The extracted fibers were submerged into the water for 3 months during retting process. The fiber samples were collected after every 5 days to check its degradation in fiber properties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fiber softening<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Banana fibers were finished with 2\u2009% jute batching oil in water emulsion to soften the fiber before needlepunching. This process helps in preventing fiber damage. The finishing oil was sprayed on the fibers. The composition of finishing bath used as 30\u2009% jute batching oil and 70\u2009% water includes small fraction of antifoaming agent, emulsifier agent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fiber conditioning<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The fibers were kept for 48 hours in a closed chamber for conditioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Needlepunching<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The fibers were processed on mechanical softening machine and passed through a carding machine. The output of first carding machine was fed to the second carding machine as per required blend ratio which has cross-lapping arrangement in tandem with needle punching at NIRJAFT. The process parameters were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Carding speed: 2 m\/min<\/li>
- Needlepunch stroke rate: 210 strokes\/min<\/li>
- Feed rate: 120 m\/min<\/li>
- Draw off speed: 145 m\/min<\/li>
- Needle penetration depth: 13 mm<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
The PP blended material was then passed through the thermobonding machine using calendar rollers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Material testing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The nonwovens were tested for its weight, thickness, air permeability and tensile strength as per ASTM standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Results and discussion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
As we decrease the banana fiber percentage of needle-punched thermal bonded nonwovens made from blend of banana and PP fiber the weight increases (Table). This result obtained is against the theory because the linear density of banana fiber (1.35 g\/cm2) is more than PP (0.93 g\/cm2). As the proportion of banana fiber decreases thickness will increase because the fiber density of banana fiber is higher compared to PP. Normalized tensile strength decreases as the banana fiber percentage is decreased. This is because the banana fiber is stronger than PP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the banana fiber percentage is decreased the air permeability decreases. This is because the banana fiber percentage is decreased there is increase in thickness which offers more resistance for airflow. Also higher percentage of PP increases covering power of fabric (less pores) hence reduction in air permeability. The numbers in the table for various properties such as weight, tensile strength, air permeability, thickness and normalized tensile strength matches the requirements of fabrics used to avoid landslide near river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Conclusions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
As we decrease the banana fiber percentage of needle-punched thermal bonded nonwovens made from blend of banana and PP fiber the weight increases, thickness increases, normalized tensile strength decreases and air permeability decreases. The properties tested are useful for fabrics that can be used to avoid landslide near river. Hence it can be concluded that these nonwovens made from banana\/PP fiber blends using needlepunching and thermal bonded technologies (calendar) can be used to avoid landslide near river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Acknowledgement<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The author N.B. Timble, DKTE Society\u2019s Textile and Engineering Institute, Ichalkaranji\/India, would like to thank Science, Engineering and Research Council (SERC) under Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India for funding this project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
References<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
[1] Jacob, N.; Prema, P.: Novel process for the simultaneous extraction and Degumming of banana fibers under solid-state cultivation, Braz. J. Microbiol. 39 (2008) 115-121
[2] Maleque, M.A.; Belal, F.Y.; Sapuan, S.M.: Mechanical properties study of pseudo-stem banana fiber reinforced epoxy composite, Arab. J. Sci. Engin. 32 (2007) 359-364
[3] Baig, M.M.V.; Baig, M.L.B., Baib, M.A.I., Yasmeen, M.: Saccharification of banana agro-waste by cellulolytic enzymes, African J. Biotechnol. 3 (2004) 447-450
[4] Mohapatra, D.; Mishra, S.; Sutar, N.: Banana and its by-product utilisation: an overview, J. Scientific Indus. Res. 69 (2010) 323-329
[5] Sinha, M.K.: The Use of Banana Fiber as a Substitute for Jute, J. Text. Inst. 65 (1974) 27-33
[6] Kun Li; Shiyu Fu; Huaiyu Zhan; Yao Zhan: Analysis of the Chemical Composition and Morphological Structure of Banana Pseudo-Stem, BioResources 5 (2010) 576-585
[7] Abdul Khalil, H.P.S.; Siti Alwani, M.; Mohd Omar, A.K.: Chemical composition, anatomy, lignin distribution, and cell wall structure of Malaysian plant waste fibers, BioResources 1 (2006) 220-232
[8] Harrera-Estrada, L.; Pillay, S.; Vaidya, U.: Banana Fiber Composite for Automotive and Transportation Applications, Proceedings SPE Automotive (2008)
[9] Sixta, H. (ed.): Handbook of pulp, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim\/Germany, 1st ed., 2006
[10] Goswami, T.; Kalita, D.; Rao, P.G.: Greaseproof paper from Banana (Musa paradisica L.) pulp fibre, Indian J. Chem. Tech. 15 (2008) 457-461
[11] Ga\u00f1\u00e1n, P.; Zuluaga, R.; Velez, J.M.; Mondragon, I.: Biological natural retting for determining the hierarchical structuration of banana fiber, Macromol. Biosci. 4 (2004) 978-983
[12] van Dam, J.E.G.: Coir processing technologies : improvement of drying, softening, bleaching and dyeing coir fibre\/yarn and printing coir floor coverings, Wageningen University & Research 2002, https:\/\/edepot.wur.nl\/195898
[13] Kulkarni, A.G.; Satyanarayana, K.G.; Rohatgi, P.K.; Vijayan, K.: Mechanical properties of banana fibers (Musa sepientum), J. Mater. Sci. 18 (1983) 2290-2296
[14] Desai, A.A.: Unconventional textiles in India \u2013 Banana Fibers, fibre2fashion.com (2008)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In this paper the manufacturing of nonwovens made from blends of polypropylene (PP) and banana fibers is reported using needlepunching and thermal bonding (calendar) nonwovens technologies and also finally concluded that they are used for avoiding landslide near river. This is because the nonwovens properties tested satisfied customers using these to avoid landslide near river. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Needlepunched nonwovens made of banana fiber could be used in different areas like geobags, acoustic, heat insulation, car interiors, mats etc.","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[5838,11323],"supplier":[19790,17516,19789],"class_list":["post-104236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-bioeconomy","tag-naturalfibers","supplier-dkte-societys-textile-engineering-institute","supplier-government-of-india-national-portal-of-india","supplier-nirjaft-national-institute-of-research-on-jute-and-allied-fibre-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104236\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104236"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=104236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}