Preparation and Characterization of Palm-based Sodium Carboxymethyl Cellulose for Application in Food Additive

In this study, α-Cellulose extracted from oil palm empty fruit bunches (OPEFB) was used as the raw material for producing different grade carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC). For the conversion into carboxymethyl cellulose, the α-cellulose was subjected to an etherification process, using sodium hydroxide and monochloroacetic acid (MCAA), with isopropanol as a supportive medium. The calculated CMC yield from cellulose ranged from 115.43% to 149.35%. The results indicated that the concentration of NaOH did affect the properties of produced CMC. At higher concentrations of alkali, NaOH reacts with sodium monochloroacetate to form sodium glycolate, which leads to low purity of CMC produced. CMC's purity was increase with increasing the alkali concentration from 25 to 30% of NaOH and then decreased slightly. At a low concentration of 25 % of NaOH solutions, the DS value is higher, while the DS value decreases when the NaOH concentration increases to 35 %. The produced CMC was having a wide range of viscosity depend on temperature and CMC concentration. These optimization factors allowed CMC high purity, providing plenty of opportunities for its multi-application and could be exploited as food additives.