CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS VOL. 50, 2016 A publication of The Italian Association of Chemical Engineering Online at www.aidic.it/cet Guest Editors: Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus, Eliseo Ranzi Copyright © 2016, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l., I SBN 978-88-95608-41-9; I SSN 2283-9216 Characterization of the Rambutan Peel Fiber (Nephelium lappaceum) as a Lignocellulosic Material for Technological Applications Emanoel I. S. Oliveira* a,b , Jean B. Santos b , Ana Paula B. Gonçalves a,b , Silvana Mattedi a , Nadia M. José a,b a Federal University of Bahia, Polytechnic School. Aristides Novis Street, 02, Campus Federação. Zip code 40210-630 b Federal University of Bahia, Institute of Chemistry. Barão de Jeremoabo Street, 147, Campus Ondina. Zip code 40170-115 eigor_oliv@hotmail.com This study evaluated the potential of rambutan peel (Nephelium lappaceum), an abundant, renewable and low-cost waste, as a source of lignocellulose for technological applications. FTIR analysis confirmed the achievement of lignin, hemicellulose and cellulose. It has obtained an extract with antioxidant properties by soxhlet extraction with ethanol. The peel has a high lignin content (35.34 ± 2.05 % (w/w)) and a cellulose content of 24.28 ± 2.30 % (w/w). The extraction of lignin and cellulose nanowhiskers by basic pulping and acid hydrolysis, respectively, were accomplished. A stable cellulose nanowhiskers suspension of type I and II was obtained with a 62.2 % crystallinity index. Thermogravimetric analysis showed that the nanoparticles had good thermal stability. TEM micrographs and birefringence of the suspension confirmed the presence of rod-like nanowhiskers with average length 144.93 ± 50.67 nm and average width of 5.59 ± 2.09 nm. The rambutan peel proved to be a good source of lignocellulosic material for applications, for example, in bionanocomposites. 1. Introduction Development of new technologies to contribute in environmental preservation is a current theme in research field. The use of biomass waste to obtain higher value added products is highlighted in this study because they are abundant, renewable and cheap. In this context, lignocellulosic biomass is a promising source of important products such as cellulose nanowhiskers (Habibi et al., 2010; Portela et al., 2015) which have application as reinforcing agent in polymer matrices, and lignin, which can be used as a plasticizer. In this sense, this study evaluated the rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum) peel as a source of those products. It is an exotic tropical fruit from Asia, whose cultivation has occurred in other parts of the world. The fruit is composed of 40 % edible portion and 60 % of peel and seed (Lestari et al., 2014). Its consumption has increased in recent years due to the softness and sweet flavor of its edible portion and their nutritional composition, rich in antioxidant compounds (Lestari et al., 2014), but the few records of technological applications of its peel, mainly as adsorbents (Ahmad et al., 2011), making it an abundant and interesting waste with little use (Figure 1). In this study, the main chemical composition of the peel was determinated and the products obtained (cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin) were analyzed by FTIR. The basic pulping and acid hydrolysis produced lignin and cellulose nanowhiskers, respectively, which were characterized by XRD, TGA and TEM. Figure 1: Rambutan fruit and rambutan peel. DOI: 10.3303/CET1650066 Please cite this article as: Oliveira E., Santos J., Goncalves A.P., Mattedi S., Jose N., 2016, Characterization of the rambutan peels fiber (nephelium lappaceum) as a lignocellulosic material for technological applications, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 50, 391-396 DOI: 10.3303/CET1650066 391