Sustainable Paper from Agricultural Waste: A Study on Pineapple Leaf Fiber Using Organosolv Pulping

The use of non-wood fiber sourced from agricultural waste for papermaking has attracted the interest of many researchers. In this study, paper made from pineapple leaf fiber (PALF) was developed using environmentally friendly approaches. This study aimed to prepare PALF paper using organosolv pulping with acetic acid (AcOH) and the aid of 0.1% hydrochloric acid as a catalyst. The PALF was treated with varying AcOH concentrations (16%, 20%, 24%, 28%, and 32%) for 9 h to study the effectiveness of delignification in producing high-quality pulp. Additionally, the morphological and mechanical properties of the PALF paper were characterized to analyze its potential as a quality paper. The study discovered that organosolv pulping could produce fibers that can be made into paper with properties comparable to those produced by other conventional methods. Based on Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) analysis, the emergence of cellulose-associated peaks and the reduced intensities of peaks attributed to lignin and hemicellulose suggest effective delignification. The Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) analysis revealed that the treated PALF consists of well-separated cellulosic microfibrils. Meanwhile, mechanical analysis using the Universal Testing Machine (UTM) showed that the tensile strength of the papers (0.25, 0.23, 0.27, 0.20, and 0.19 MPa varied, while the tearing resistance showed an increasing trend (2.07, 5.15, 6.86, 10.03, and 11.1 mN·m²/g) with increasing AcOH concentration. These findings suggest that PALF is a viable alternative for sustainable paper production.