Study and Development of Green Elastomeric
Compounds
Research Article
Journal of Biotechnology & Bioresearch
C
CRIMSON PUBLISHERS
Wings to the Research
1/4 Copyright © All rights are reserved by Mohamad KK.
Volume - 1 Issue - 4
Mohamad KK1* and Anjali Bishnoi2
1
Department of Polymer & Rubber Technology, Gujarat, India
2
Department of Chemical Engineering, Ahmedabad, India
*Corresponding author: Mohamad KK, Department of Polymer & Rubber Technology, Gujarat, India
Submission: July 16, 2018; Published: January 17, 2019
Introduction
Waste recycling has become a very important topic of research
as result of both environmental improvement and generation of
new composites materials. Approximately 660Mton of sugarcane
could generate a total of 28;500 million liters of alcohol; designed to
produce 45.4% of sugar and 54.6% of alcohol [1-5]. This production
would be equivalent to 160Mton of sugarcane bagasse produced.
Basically, the composition of sugarcane bagasse is cellulose (41.0-
55.0wt%); hemicellulose (20.0-27.5wt%); lignin (18.0-26.3wt%)
and others (~7.0wt%) attributed to inorganic materials. Part of
the sugarcane bagasse generated is burned and yields the power
to companies’ sustainability. Currently; about to 50% of energy
production in Brazil comes from renewable sources; being 18.8%
relative to sugarcane products (5% from burn the sugarcane
biomass). However, through this cogeneration power gets a new
residue; ash on estimated amounts for the current crop as being
around 3.84Mton [1-3].
Another material widely used in industry is the natural rubber
latex. It is a natural; biocompatible and flexible polymer obtained
mainly from the Hevea Brasiliense’s tree. In general; rubbers are
benefited by vulcanization processes which consist of the crosslink
of the polymer chains improving mainly the mechanical properties
of the compound. Currently; the rubber has been of great interest of
study as result of the possibility of composites preparation as a new
approach to technology development which may contain organic
compounds such as Defatted Soy Flour or carbon black as both
are reinforce and conductive agents [5,6]. The bagasse ash is the
remains of fibrous waste after the extraction of the sugar juice from
cane. In many tropical countries there are substantial quantities
of bagasse and husks from rice both are rich in amorphous silica;
which react with lime. The bagasse ash is a pozzolanic material that
would otherwise require disposal [3]
According to the characteristics exhibited by the SBA; it is
possible to incorporate it as filler in elastomers. The elastomers
are one of the most exploited polymeric materials in scientific
and technological area and their applications depend on their
properties; which are determined by the composition; the
structure of the constituents; and the molecular structure. Thus;
the properties can be altered by the incorporation of an elastomeric
component or by adding reinforcing filler to the polymer matrix;
such as SBA [2]. Natural rubber and synthetic rubber are converted
to serviceable products by combining them with fillers. Fillers are
materials which when added to rubber mix enhance the properties.
These properties are physical in nature which includes hardness;
tensile strength and also cure characteristics. Fillers improve the
processing characteristics; reduce cost and also act as auxiliary
components necessary for vulcanizate. Fillers can either be
reinforcing; semi-reinforcing or non-reinforcing [2].
Reinforcing fillers enhance the physical properties of the cured
article. An example of these is carbon black. There are also non-
reinforcing fillers. They reduce cost and improve processing [4,5].
Non- reinforcing fillers have little or no effect on the physical
properties of the rubber. They act as cheapener by increasing
Abstract
Natural rubber chemically consists essentially of cis-1, 4-polyisoprene, produced as latex. It constitutes a valuable indigenous renewable resource.
Waste recycling has been the subject of numerous scientific researches regarding the environmental care. Bagasse is a vegetable fiber mainly constituted
by cellulose, which is a glucose-polymer with relatively high modulus, often found as fibrillar component of many naturally occurring composites (wood,
sugarcane straw and bagasse) in association with lignin. Sugarcane bagasse is a residue left after crushing the sugarcane, which is widely produced and
contains cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, fat, waxes, ash, silica and other elements. On using this bagasse into boilers as fuel, it produces a large amount
of ash, termed as Sugarcane Bagasse Ash (SBA). SBA when left and simply dumped creates lot of environmental pollutions due to its particulate sizes.
This work focused on utilization of sugarcane bagasse ash, an important agricultural residue, by employing it as a bio-filler in the Natural Rubber matrix.
Further mainly cure characteristics and mechanical properties were studied.
Keywords: Bio filler; Compounding; Natural rubber; Sugarcane bagasse ash; Waste utilization