Institutional-Repository, University of Moratuwa.  

Influence of pre-processing and coir extraction methods on the physicochemical properties and microbial contamination of coir pith

Show simple item record

dc.contributor.advisor
dc.contributor.advisor
dc.contributor.author Fernando, JAKM
dc.contributor.author Amarasinghe, ADUS
dc.contributor.author Jayasundera, JMMA
dc.date.accessioned 2015-06-12T09:14:08Z
dc.date.available 2015-06-12T09:14:08Z
dc.date.issued 2015-06-12
dc.identifier.uri http://dl.lib.mrt.ac.lk/handle/123/10913
dc.description.abstract Particle size, pH, electrical conductivity, water retention capacity and drying characteristic of coir pith' determine the quality of the final product. These parameters may influence by the time duration for retting, method of crushing and the mode of mechanical extraction. Two types of fiber extraction methods namely Ceylon Drum method and D1 method were examined. Ceylon Drum gave higher percentage of fine particles while D1 method gave higher percentage of medium size particles. Higher fraction of fine particles could be obtained by increasing the retting time. Retting time was significantly lowered by crushing the husk. However, it resulted in lower percentage of fine particles and significantly high percentage of medium particles (more than 75%) suggesting a possible mechanism for obtaining required particle sizes through a combination of crushing and retting. Retting increased the initial moisture content of coir pith but the drying characteristic was not significantly altered as compared to water spraying. Water retention capacity ^(5.75 ± 0.67), volume expansion (5.70± 0.46), pH (5.83 ± 0.19) and electrical conductivity (540 ± 152 W ps/cm) were similar among the sundried coir pith obtained from different pre-processing methods. Initial microbial count was significantly high for retted coir pith but the retained microbial strains
dc.language.iso en en_US
dc.subject Coir pith
dc.subject Coconut husk
dc.subject Retting Physicochemical properties
dc.title Influence of pre-processing and coir extraction methods on the physicochemical properties and microbial contamination of coir pith en_US
dc.identifier.faculty Engineering en_US
dc.identifier.department Department of Chemical and Process Engineering en_US
dc.identifier.year 2013 en_US
dc.identifier.conference Institute of Engineers, Sri Lanka : transctions 2013 Vol.1 pt.B en_US
dc.identifier.place Colombo en_US
dc.identifier.pgnos pp. 361-366 en_US
dc.identifier.email adusa2@cheng.mrt.ac.lk en_US


Files in this item

This item appears in the following Collection(s)

Show simple item record