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Indian Journal of Fibre & Textile ResearchVol. 36, June 2011, pp.172-177
Utilization of pineapple leaf agro-waste for extraction of fibre and the residual
biomass for vermicomposting
Shyamal Banika, Debasis Nag & Sanjoy Debnath
National Institute of Research on Jute & Allied Fibre Technology, 12 Regent Park, Kolkata 700 040, India
Received 28 April 2010; revised received and accepted 16 July 2010
A special type of machine with metal knife scrapper roller and serrated roller has been developed and used to scrap outthe waxy layer and at the same time macerating and breaking the leaf surface for ease of retting to extract the pineapple leaffibres. Pineapple leaf contains 2.5-3.5% strong, white and silky textile grade fibre embedded by a top waxy layer within theleaf. After removing the top waxy layer, fibre has been extracted from the pineapple leaf by retting in water. The residual
green sludge has been used for vermicomposting after appropriate treatment using earthworm species African night crawler(Eudrilus eugeniae) as inoculums. The vermicomposting process was complete within 45 days. This vermicompost frompineapple leaf agro-waste is found to be rich in plant nutrients. The combined technology package for the extraction of fibrefrom pineapple leaf and utilization of the residual biomass debris from the pineapple leaf scratching machine for
vermicomposting is economically viable and remunerative for the pineapple cultivators.
Keywords:Agro-waste, -cellulose, Hydrophobic waxy layer, Pineapple leaf fibre, Pineapple leaf scratching machine, Retting,
Vermicomposting
1 IntroductionPineapple leaf fibre is a high textile grade
commercial fibre, generally extracted by water
retting. Pineapple leaf contains only 2.5-3.5% fibre,
covered by a hydrophobic waxy layer, which remainsbeneath the waxy layer1. Pineapple leaf fibre is graded
in between jute and cotton or jute and ramie. It has all
textile properties and is capable of blending with jute,
cotton, ramie and some other synthetic fibres2-4
. So
pineapple leaf fibre can capture an important position
among natural fibres as potential commercial gradetextile fibre, but there is need of its assured supply to
processing industry in sufficient quantities.
Pineapple is cultivated in India, approximately in
87.2 thousand hectare of land and 600 thousand tons
of pineapple leaf fibre can be extracted from this
agro-waste leaves after harvest of the fruit
5
. Althoughpineapple leaf fibre is silky, fine and textile grade, the
fibre content is only 2.5-3.5% of total leaf biomass.
Thus, the fibre extraction alone from pineapple leaf is
not economically viable and hence does not create
much interest to farmers. Pineapple leaves are noteven suitable for cattle feed and after harvest of fruit
the disposal of the leaves becomes a big problem.
During extraction of fibre, significant amount of
succulent green biomass debris is left after scrapping
out the waxy surface layer from pineapple leaf. This
residual sludge can be utilized successfully for
vermicomposting to make the total integrated systemeconomically viable.
Vermicomposting is a simple biotechnological
process of composting using certain efficient species
of earthworms. This is a mesophilic process, mediated
by special types of earthworms and microorganisms.
The process is faster than common composting,because in this case the substrate materials pass
through the earthworm gut where transformation
takes place. The resulting earthworm manure is rich in
microbial activity and plant growth regulators and
fortified with pest repellence attributes as well6.
Earthworms can consume the organic mass of thepineapple leaf residue to convert them into the
vermicompost. Each worm weighing about 0.5-0.6g
eats waste organic matter equivalent to its body
weight and produces compost cast equivalent to about
50% of the biomass it consumes per day.
This study is an endeavour for the extraction of
fibre from pineapple leaf agro-waste, determination of
environmental factors related to retting of pineapple
leaf for finding out most favourable conditions of
retting, and utilization of the residual biomass debris
___________
aTo whom all the correspondence should be addressed.E-mail: [email protected]
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INDIAN J. FIBRE TEXT. RES., JUNE 2011174
Semi-dried pineapple leaf debris were mixed withcattle dung @ 100 kg per ton of pineapple leaf waste
and used for preliminary bed preparation. This
organic residue was allowed to decompose for onemonth, covering surface with dry grass and leaves for
mulching before inoculation of mature earthwormspecies. African night crawler (Eudrilus eugeniae) @
100 in number per square meter area on the bed was
inoculated and then covered with fresh pineapple
scratched leaf residue. The process was allowed to
continue for another 45 days. Water was regularlysprayed on the composting beds to keep the
earthworm alive and in action. Watering was stopped
3-4 days before harvesting, i.e. when the biomass
lump becomes brittle and brown in colour for surface
drying and moving the earthworm to penetrate inside.
Dry compost was collected from the surface, grinded
and sieved before packing as ready vermicompost.
2.7 Multiplication of Earthworm
Earthworm multiplies on decaying leaves and cattle
dung in 1:1 ratio in cement tank with proper drainage
facility. The nucleus culture of earthworm was
introduced into the organic waste mixture at the rateof 50 numbers per kilogram of the substrate. They
were properly mulched with dry grass and wet gunny
bags and kept under shade. Proper moisture level was
maintained by sprinkling water from time to time.
Within one month the earthworms multiplied300 times, which was used as inoculum for
vermicomposting.
2.8 Precautions Taken for Vermicomposting
Following precautions were taken for
vermicomposting:
(i) The composting area was shaded to protectearthworm from direct sunlight.
(ii)
Adequate moisture level was maintained by
sprinkling water as and when required.
(iii) The tanks were covered with iron nets to
prevent earthworms from birds and rodents andfrom ants.
2.9 Chemical and Microbial Analysis of Vermicompost
Carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium from
the vermicompost samples were determined by
methods described in Jackson10. Population of total
viable bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes was
determined from the vermicompost following serial
dilution technique using modified Bunt and Rovira soil
extract agar for bacteria, Martins Rose Bengal
streptomycin agar for fungi and Jensens actinomycetes
agar for actinomycetes. Average number of coloniesfrom duplicate plates were observed.
3 Results and Discussion
Table 1 shows that pineapple leaf fibre containsmore -cellulose and less lignin than jute. Degree of
polymerization and crystallinity of -cellulose ofpineapple leaf fibre is almost at par with jute but it is
much inferior to ramie and cotton. From chemical
composition also it appears that pineapple leaf fibre is
a better textile fibre than jute and also a better
substrate for pulp and paper4,11,12
.From Table 2 it is evident that pineapple leaf fibre
(PALF) is finer than average grade jute. It has no meshy
structure like jute and contains well separated filaments.
The fibre is two times more extensible than jute, with
similar fibre bundle strength and L/B ratio. Flexuralrigidity and torsional rigidity of pineapple leaf fibre are
comparable to jute2. In consideration of textile properties
it is placed in between jute and cotton or jute and ramie.
Table 1Comparative chemical composition of pineapple leaf
fibre in per cent
Constituent Pineappleleaf fibre
Capsularisjute
Ramie Cotton
-Cellulose 69.5 61.0 86.9 94.0
Pentosans 17.8 15.9 3.9 0
Lignin 4.4 13.2 0.5 0Fat and wax 3.3 0.9 0.3 0.6
Pectin 1.1 0 0 0.9Nitrogenous
matter
0.25 1.56 2.1 1.2a
Ash 0.9 0.5 1.1 1.2DP of
-cellulose
1178 1150 5800 2020
Crystalinity of
-cellulose
57.5 55.0 70.0 68.0
DP Degree of polymerization, aAs protein.
Table 2Comparative physical properties (mean values) of
pineapple leaf fibre
Parameter Pineappleleaf fibre
Jute Ramie
Capsularis OlitoriusTenacity,
g/tex
26.1 25.0 23.9 45.0
Fineness, tex 2.8 2.2 2.5 0.7
Flexural
rigidity
dynes cm2
3.8 4.5 4.6 1.0
Torsional
rigidity 1010
dynes/cm2
0.86 0.85 0.80 1.5
Extension- at-break, %
L/B ratio of
ultimate cell
3.0
450
1.5
110
1.5
110
3.5
3500
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BANIK et al.: UTILIZATION OF PINEAPPLE LEAF AGRO-WASTE 175
Moreover it can be blended with jute, cotton, ramie andsome synthetic fibres, viz. acrylic, viscose and
polypropylene for improvement in fabric quality3,13-15.
Considering all these physical and chemical properties,pineapple leaf fibre seems to have a very good prospect
as textile grade fibre16
and can fetch good market valueif supply of fibre can be assured to processing industry
as per their demand. Hence, there is a need to develop a
technology for extraction of pineapple leaf fibre, which
is profitable and easy to use by the pineapple growers.
Environmental parameters related to retting ofpineapple leaf have been studied to bring out best-suited
technology for fibre extraction and the results have been
presented in Table 3. Environmental parameters, viz.
temperature,pH and conductivity of retting water during
the progress of retting of pineapple leaf were evaluated.
Retting was conducted in 1:20 substrate-liquor ratio
using urea as accelerator. Inoculation with pectinolytic
bacteria has been suggested for improved retting of jute
and kenaf11
. Retting of pineapple leaf needs to be
evaluated by inoculation with potential pectinolytic
anaerobic bacteria since most part of the retting of
pineapple leaf happens to continue in anaerobic
condition. The average temperature of water during this
experiment in summer was around 36C. The retting
was completed in 5-6 days. The initial pH from near
neutrality drops to acidic range due to release of organic
acids in retting liquor; particularly galacturonic acid has
been found during retting of jute8. The pH of water
gradually increases as the retting progressed to
completion, which is similar to retting of jute. The
conductivity of retting water gradually increases and
reaches to a maximum value at the end of retting. Thismight be due to the release of inorganic and organic ions
in retting liquor.
Results of another experiment conducted during
autumn when the temperature reaches below 30C(post monsoon and pre winter) are shown in Table 4.
About 13-14 days are required for completion of theretting; still the separation of fibre is not found to be
satisfactory. In this case also pH of water sharply
drops to acidic range with starting of retting and at theend of retting pH starts increasing slowly. Similarly,
the release of organic acid due to the decomposition
of large carbohydrate molecules is responsible for
drop in pH8. The redox potential of water gradually
decreases and reaches to a very low level, where
methanogenic bacteria remains active and
biomethanation may take place. This indicates that
like retting of jute, kenaf or flax, the retting of
pineapple leaf predominantly takes place in thereduced environment and is mediated by anaerobic
microflora. Conductivity in retting tank water gradually
Table 4Environmental parameters during extraction of pineapple leaf fibre in retting tank during autumn
Pre-retting operation Days of retting Temperature,C pH Eh, mV Conductivity, ms
Scrapping of leaf 02
4681013
14
30.029.7
30.129.827.125.030.4
29.6
7.694.35
4.284.584.884.834.80
4.84
+186.0-33.3
-96.9-190.1-187.0-298.1-239.1
-252.6
0.0011252.33
2.833.173.313.143.28
3.92
Scrapping and combing of leaf 02
46810
13
30.029.7
30.330.127.025.0
30.1
7.693.78
3.894.015.174.98
5.04
+186.0-7.2
-77.9-143.4-200.0-291.3
-250.4
0.0011253.15
3.353.523.503.49
3.57
Table 3Environmental parameters during extraction of
pineapple leaf fibre and retting time in laboratory conditionsduring summer
Retting water parameterSample Day ofretting Temperature
C
pH Conductivity
m.mho/cm
Set I 1 36 6.20 1.3223
5
6
3636
36
36
5.174.99
5.30
5.33
1.651.75
1.75
1.81
Set II 1345
67
36363636
3736
7.125.185.075.09
4.975.02
1.231.741.831.97
2.422.47
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INDIAN J. FIBRE TEXT. RES., JUNE 2011176
increases and reaches to maximum at the end of retting.This is quite obvious because both organic and inorganic
ions are released and added to retting water. The
experiment was conducted at a substrate : liquor ratio1:20 with added accelerator diammonium phosphate
(DAP) @ 0.5%. Hence, from changes of environmentalparameters in retting water it is clearly understood that
retting of pineapple leaf is favoured at around 35C. The
pH of retting liquor becomes acidic due to the
production of organic acids and Eh reaches to low
reduced zone due to the consumption of dissolved
oxygen in water by aerobic microflora. Hence, acid
enduric or acidphilic anaerobic microflora might have
played significant role in retting of pineapple leaf fibre
under this experimental condition. Since aerobic
microflora has been found in retting water at initialstage, they might be responsible for the consumption of
soluble organic matter and oxygen, acting as primary
retting agent and at the same time converting the retting
water suitable for the growth of secondary anaerobic
microflora, and finally the anaerobes complete the
retting process.
Pineapple leaf contains 2.5-3.5% fibre dependingon the variety. Since harsh decortication process
damages pineapple leaf fibre, the new proposed
machine has been modified for the mild operation.
Selection of leaf is also important for successful fibre
extraction. In Philippines, pineapple leaf fibre wasextracted by expert labourers manually who used to
scrap the leaf with a piece of broken porcelain utensil
with care and extract the fibre manually. Later on, this
method has been proved only for academic interest
without any practical reality. The fibre wasrecognized as Pina fibre. This method of pineapple
leaf fibre extraction could not meet the commercial
demand5.
In the present study, different methods (Table 5)
have been evaluated for the extraction of fibre from
pineapple leaf, viz. manual combing, scrapping the
leaf on one side or both the sides with a decorticatormachine, and scrapping and combing one side of the
leaf by a decorticator machine. In new machine, the
steps involve scrapping the leaves to remove waxy
layer and at the same time the leaves pass through
serrated roller for maceration and to break the leaf
surface for entry of retting microorganisms. The
processed pineapple leaves were then retted in
1:20 substrate: liquor ratio with nutrient supplements,
such as 0.5% urea or 0.5% di-ammonium phosphate
(DAP). After completion of retting, the fibres were
extracted, air-dried, and strength and fineness of the
extracted fibres were determined for comparison.
Table 5 shows that manual combing or scrappingfollowed by retting in water takes maximum time for
retting and eventually the fibre strength reduces while
fineness of fibre is adversely affected. Scrapping the
pineapple leaf either one side or both the sides has no
significant difference in retting time, fibre strength and
fineness. Removal of waxy layer from the pineapple
leaf makes an easy entry for retting microbes and thus
helps in quicker retting1. Passing the leaf through the
decorticator machine (Fig.1) for scrapping and then
combing could reduce the retting period but could not
improve the strength or fineness of the fibre, thus
indicating incomplete retting. But on passing thepineapple leaf through newly developed machine9
(Fig. 2) first the scrapping roller removes waxy layer
and then serrated roller helps in rupturing the surface of
the leaf for easy entry of retting microorganisms in the
leaf, which is found to be most effective. Time taken
for retting in these two old and new systems is found to
be the same but the fibre quality in terms of strength
and fineness is better in the new machine. Therefore,
the new system is recommended for the extraction of
pineapple leaf fibre successfully. Good quality fibre
has been extracted by retting in water from those
processed leaves in retting tank using 0.5% urea.Average moisture content in vermicompost cast was
50% and the pH was 7.0. It is observed that the
vermicompost contains more nitrogen, phosphorus and
potassium almost at per and less C:N ratio than othercompost although it is likely to vary with pineapple leaf
biomass residue used for vermicomposting. Pineapple
leaf residue vermicompost contains 1.0-1.2% nitrogen,
0.3-0.4% phosphorus and 0.4-0.5% potassium which
indicates that pineapple leaf debris vermicompost is richenough in NPK and will be suitable for agriculture.
Table 5Comparative strength and fineness of pineapple leaf
fibre by different systems
Pre-retting procedure Retting period
days
Tenacity
g/tex
Fineness
tex
Manual combing 10 7.8 VariableMachine scrapping(one side)
8 11.1 4.3
Machine scrapping(both side)
8 11.6 5.0
Machine scrapping +combing (one side)
6 9.7 5.7
Machine scrapping +maceration (one side)
6 16.7 3.4
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BANIK et al.: UTILIZATION OF PINEAPPLE LEAF AGRO-WASTE 177
Earthworms are invertribates and are of two types
(i) burrowing type and (ii) non-burrowing type. The
non-burrowing types live in upper layer of soil
surface and consume 10% soil organic matter and
90% added organic matter, whereas the burrowingtype live deep in soil and depend 90% on soil organic
matter and 10% on added organic matter. The non-
burrowing type has been used for vermicomposting
from pineapple leaf scratching debris.Generally, microbial population initially increases
in compost beds when organic matter is actively
decomposing and then gradually decreases in number
and reaches to an equilibrium when easily
decomposable organic materials are exhausted
(Table 6). It is also important that the microorganisms
face competition for organic matter from earthworms
in vermicompost beds. Moreover, earthworm
inevitably consumes soil microbes during ingestion of
the organic substrate and extracts nitrogen from
microbes especially from fungi17
. This may be the
reason for less number of fungi in vermicompostsamples18. Bacteria might have multiplied fast again
in vermicompost so long the sufficient moisture is
there. pH and temperature show a profound role in
controlling microbial population in vermicomposting.
From the experimental results, it is evident that 0.68
tons of vermicompost is formed from 1.5 tons of
pineapple leaf scratching residues. This is obtained
from 8 tons of fresh harvested agro-waste leaves after
harvest of pineapple fruit from 1 hectare of land under
pineapple cultivation. The present Indian market price
of the vermicompost is approximately INR 6/- per kg.
and pineapple leaf fibre is INR 25/- per kg. Assumingaverage availability of 8 tons of pineapple leaf from
one hectare of land, the fibre yield @ 2.5% is found to
be 200 kg under simply pineapple cultivation. Thus,
the extra income from pineapple leaf fibre is INR
5000/- and from vermicompost is INR 4080/-, i.e. INR
9080/- from one hectare of land from the integrated
system of waste management. The payback period for
the pineapple leaf-scratching machine has been
calculated 4.5 years with 39.57% break-even point.
4 ConclusionThe newly developed machine can effectively be
used to extract the fibre from the agro-waste of
pineapple leaves and the residual sludge obtained afterscratching the leaves can be used for vermicomposting
successfully. This integrated technology for theextraction of pineapple leaf fibre and the
vermicomposting altogether becomes remunerative to
the pineapple cultivators. The payback period for the
machine is 4.5 years with 39.57% break-even point.
The combined technology can be adopted by allpineapple growers for additional income.
AcknowledgementThe authors are thankful to the Director, Food
Processing Industries & Horticulture, Govt. of West
Bengal, for providing facilities to conduct field trials.
References1 Paul D, Bhattacharyya S K, Banik S, Basu M K &
Mukherjee A B,Appropriate Technol, 24 (4) (1998) 27.2 Ghosh S K & Sinha M K,Indian Text J, 88 (2) (1977) 111.3 Ghosh S K & Dey S K,J Text Assoc, 49 (5) (1988) 167.4 Sinha M K,Agricult Wastes, 4 (6) (1982) 461.
5 Doraiswami I & Chellamani P, Pineapple leaf fibres. TextProg, 24 (1) (1993) 1-37.
6 Nagavallemma K P, Wani S P, Lacroix S, Padmaja V V,Vineela C, Babu Rao M & Sahrawat K L, Vermicomposting :
Recycling waste into valuable organic fertilizer. Global
theme on Agroecosystems, Report No. 8 (ICRISAT, India),2004, 20.
7
TAPPI Standard and Suggested Methods, (Technical
Association of Pulp & Paper Industry, New York), 1991.8
Banik S, Basak M K, Paul D, Nayak P, Sardar D, Sil S C,Sanpui B C & Ghosh A, Indian Crops and Products, 17(2003) 183.
9
Nag Debasis & Debnath Sanjoy, A pineapple leaf fibredecorticator assembly, Indian Patent Application No.2334/DEL/2007, 07 November 2007.
10
Jackson M L, Soil Chemical Analysis (Prentice Hall of
India), 1991, 498.11
Banik S, Basak M K & Sil S C, J Natural Fibres, 4 (2)
(2007) 33.12 Pandey S N & Anantha Krishnan S R, in: Fifty Years of
Research 1939-1989 (Jute Technological ResearchLaboratories. ( ICAR ), Calcutta), 1990, 96.13 Ghosh S K, Sinha M K, Dey S K & Bhaduri S K, Text
Trends, 24 (10) (1982) 49.
14 Ghosh S K, Dey S K & Bhadur S K, Text Trends, 25 (4)(1982) 49.
15 Sinha M K & Ghosh S K,Indian Text J, 88 (3) (1977) 105.16 Bhaduri S K, Sen S K & Dasgupta P C, Indian Pulp Paper,
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18 Ranganathan L S & Vinotha S P, Curr Sci, 74 (1998) 634.
Table 6Microbial population in vermicomposting samples
Sample Viablebacteria/g
Viablefungi/g
Viableactinomycetes/g
Partiallydecomposed
substrate
69 106 11 104 2 104
Vermicompost 54 106 8 104 1 104