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ISSN 2229-5518

A Study on Production of Pulp from Ground Nut

Shells
Y N Ramgopal, M Reshma Chowdary, V Chaitanya

Abstract------ In recent years, with the growing shortage of wood from the forest, the search for alternative fibre producing plant material has been initi-
ated in many countries of the world. The generation of fast growing high biomass yielding plant is thought to be one of the solutions to meet the shortage
of cellulosic material. However, certain agricultural plants producing higher biomass are found to be suitable substitute for certain fibre based industries.
Among them groundnut shells may serve partly as an alternative resource. In this project we produced pulp from waste groundnut shells using Kraft’s
process and Soda process, and also analyse the both process based on their yield and energy consumption.

Keywords: Ground nut Shell, Cellulosic material, Kraft’s process, Soda process, Pulp.

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1 INTRODUCTION
2.1 Raw Materials
aper is a thin m aterial prod u ced by pressing together
P m oist fibers,typ ically cellu lose pu lp d erived from w ood , rag
s or grasses, and d rying them into flexible sheets. Paper is a
Generally, w ood s are tw o types. H ard w ood s and Soft w ood s.
Wood from conifers (e.g. pine) is called softw ood , and the
w ood from d icotyled ons (u su ally broad -leaved trees, e.g. oak)
versatile m aterial w ith m any u ses. While the m ost com m on is
for w riting and p rinting u pon, it is also w id ely u sed as a pack- is called hard w ood . H ard w ood s are not necessarily hard , and

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aging m aterial, in m any cleaning prod u cts, in a nu m ber of softw ood s are not necessarily soft. The w ell-know n balsa (a
ind u strial and constru ction processes, and even as a food in- hard w ood ) is actu ally softer than any com m ercial softw ood .
gred ient --- particu larly in Asian cu ltu res. Paper, and the pu lp Conversely, som e soft w ood s (e.g. yew ) are hard er than m any
paperm aking process, w as said to be d eveloped hard w ood s.
in China d u ring the early 2nd centu ry AD, possibly as early as These w ood s contain basically three m aterials in them . They
the year 105 A.D., by the H an cou rt eu nu ch Cai Lu n, althou gh are:
the earliest archaeological fragm ents of p aper d erive from the 1. Cellu lose
2nd centu ry BC in China. 2. H em i cellu lose
3. Lignin, and
From then on p aper is u sed as the m ajor sou rce of com m u nica- 4. Pectin
tion in the form of w riting letters, keeping record s of valu able
The cellu lose present in w ood is m ostly in the form of fibres.
inform ation like books, entertaining people in the form of
The cellu lose fibres are obtained as pu lp after pu lping process.
novels and spread ing inform ation abou t the d aily happ enings
Cellu lose fibre is a lon g chain of single m onom er C 6H 10O 5.
in the form of new s p apers, w hich is the m ajor revolu tion in
com m u nication that ever happened in the history of m ankind .

With variou s technologies available for prod u ction of p aper,

m ad e itself u se fu ll in lots of applications. It not only has role
in com m u nication bu t also to large extent in packing m aterials
(low grad e p aper), w hich is reason for selection of this project.
In view of this, several attem pts w ere m ad e in recent years to
d evelop paper from agricu ltu ral w astes. This project involves
not only the prod u ction of paper bu t the basic raw m aterial for
paper prod u ction that is pu lp from grou nd nu t shells (abu n- Fig.1 Cellulose
d antly available on earth). The reason behind the selection of
grou nd nu t shells as raw m aterial is, after the nu ts are re- 2.2 Methods of Pulping
m oved , the shells w ill be w asted . Tons of grou nd nu t shells are Many processes cam e into existence for prod u ction of pu lp
throw n aw ay annu ally. from w ood m aterials in past 2 d ecad es. These m ethod s w ork
d ifferent becau se of the feed they take in, based on the qu ality
2 PULPING of pu lp obtained after the process and also based on their effi-
ciencies.
Pu lping is the process of prod u ction of Pu lp u sing w ood m ate-
rial w hich is a lignocellu loses fibrou s m aterial. It is prepared Preparation for Pulping
by chem ically or m echanically sep arating cellu lose fibres from Wood chip ping is the act and ind u stry of chipping w ood for
w ood , fibre crop s or w aste p aper. pu lp, bu t also for other processed w ood prod u cts and m u lch.
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Only the heartw ood and sapw ood are u sefu l for m aking scribed as ‘Poor m an’s Bad am ’. There is versatility w ith re-
pu lp. Bark contains relatively few u sefu l fibres and is rem oved spect to the grou nd nu t seed consu m ption, since it is consu m ed
and u sed as fu el to provid e steam for u se in the pu lp m ill. in raw or roasted or salted or sw eetened states in Ind ian food
Most pu lping processes requ ire that the w ood be chipped and prep arations. Grou nd nu t is also of valu e as rotation crop. As it
screened to provid e u niform sized chip s. is the plant, it im proves soil nu trients, d u e to the presence of
atm ospheric nitrogen fixing bacteria in its root nod u les w hile
2.2.1. Mechanical pulping:
the d ry plant p arts are u sed as fod d er. Thu s, all p arts of
Manu factu red grind stones w ith em bed d ed silicon car- grou nd nu t plant are fu lly u sefu l.
bid e or alu m iniu m oxid e can be u sed to grind sm all w ood logs
called "bolts" to m ake stone pu lp (SGW). If the w ood is Grou nd nu t shell has great potential for com m ercial u se.
steam ed p rior to grind ing it is know n as pressu re grou nd Grou nd nu t shell is u sed as a fu el, filler in cattle feed , hard par-
w ood pu lp (PGW). Most m od ern m ills u se chip s rather than ticleboard , cork su bstitu te, activated carbon, etc. De-hu lled
logs and rid ged m etal d iscs called refiner plates instead of grou nd nu t hu sk is u sed in prod u ction of hard board s.
grind stones. If the chips are ju st grou nd u p w ith the plates, the
pu lp is called refiner m echanical pu lp (RMP) and if the chips The grou nd nu t shell fibres possess good physical strength
are steam ed w hile being refined the pu lp is called therm o m e- properties. The higher pentosan content together w ith gu m s
chanical pu lp (TMP). Steam treatm ent significantly red u ces and m u cilage in the sheath of certain species of grou nd nu t
the total energy need ed to m ake the pu lp and d ecreases the plant m ay be a su itable sou rce for prod u cin g p aper. Alt-
d am age (cu tting) to fibres. Mechanical pu lps are u sed for hou gh, reports are available on u tilization of grou nd nu t shell
prod u cts that requ ire less strength, su ch as new s fibre for textile, pu lp and p aper m aking, bu t no reports are
print p aperboard s. available d evelopm ents of p aper u sing grou nd nu t shell fibre.

2.3.2. Thermo mechanical pulping:

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Therm o m echanical pu lp is pu lp prod u ced by pro-
cessing w ood chip s u sing heat and a m echanical refining
m ovem ent. It is a tw o stage process w here the logs are first
strip ped of their bark and converted into sm all chip s. These
chips have a m oistu re content of arou nd 25-30% and a m e-
chanical force is applied to the w ood chip s in a cru shing or
grind ing action w hich generates heat and w ater vap ou r and
softens the lignin thu s sep arating the ind ivid u al fibres. The
pu lp is then screened and cleaned ; any clu m ps of fibre are re-
processed . This process gives a high yield of fibre from
the tim ber (arou nd 95%) and as the lignin has not been re-
m oved , the fibres are hard and rigid .
2.3.3. Chemical pulping:
Chem ical pu lp is prod u ced by com bining w ood chips and
chem icals in large vessels know n as d igesters w here heat and
the chem icals break d ow n the lignin, w hich bind s
the cellu lose fibres together, w ithou t seriou sly d egrad ing
the cellu lose fibres. Chem ical pu lp is u sed for m aterials that
need to be stronger or com bined w ith m echanical p u lps to Fig 2 Groundnut Shell Fibre Properties
give prod u ct d ifferent characteristics.

3.2 Chemicals
3 MATERIALS AND CHEMICALS 3.2.1 Sodium carbonate
3.1 Why Ground nut Shell?
Sod iu m carbonate, N a 2CO 3 is a sod iu m salt of carbonic acid . It
Grou nd nu t botanically know n as Arachishypogeae belongs m ost com m only occu rs as a crystalline heptahyd rate, w hich
to legu m inou s fam ily. It is the fou rth largest oil seed pro- read ily effloresces to form a w hite pow d er, the m onohyd rate.
d u ced in w orld and Ind ia is the second largest prod u cer of Sod iu m carbonate is d om estically w ell know n for its everyd ay
grou nd nu t after china. A com plete seed of grou nd nu t is u se as a w ater softener. It can be extracted from the ashes of
called as p od and ou ter layer of grou nd nu t is called shell. m any plants. It is synthetically prod u ced in large qu antities
from salt (sod iu m chlorid e) and lim estone in a process know n
Alm ost every part of grou nd nu t is of com m ercial valu e.
as the Solvay process.
Grou nd nu t seed s are nu trition ally rich d u e to the presence of
oil, protein, m inerals, vitam ins etc. As a resu lt, it is often d e-
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3.2.2 Sodium Hydroxide -14.3% is N a 2CO 3

Sod iu m hyd roxid e, also know n as lye or cau stic sod a, has the If we take basis as 1000 ml solution of cooking liquor, then 12.5%
m olecu lar form u la N aOH and is highly cau stic m etallic base. by weight gives 125grams which is the total weight of all three
It is a w hite solid available in pellets, flakes, granu les, and as a chemicals required. Compositions of solids are given by wt%. If
50% satu rated solu tion. we calculate the individual weight of chemicals required, they
would give the following.
Sod iu m hyd roxid e is solu ble in w ater, ethanol and m ethanol. NaOH weight=0.586×125=73.25grams.
This alkali is d eliqu escent and read ily absorbs m oistu re and Na2SO 4 weight=0.271×125=33.875grams.
carbon d ioxid e in air. N a 2CO 3 weight=0.143×125=17.875grams.

Sod iu m hyd roxid e is u sed in m any ind u stries, m ostly as a Digesting: Once the cooking liquor is prepared 400ml of it is tak-
strong chem ical base inthem anu factu reof pu lp and p aper, texti en separately in a 100ml beaker to which 5 grams of raw material
les, d rinkingw ater, soap sand d etergents and as a d rain clean- (dried banana stem) is added and the level is marked. The reason
er. World w id e prod u ction in 2004 w as ap proxim ately for marking the level is described below.
60 m illion tonnes, w hile d em and w as 51 m illion tonnes. Alt- Industrially, steam is used for heating purpose. There are two
hou gh m olten sod iu m hyd roxid e p ossesses properties sim ilar reasons for selecting steam as heating source:
to those of the other form s, its high tem peratu re com paratively 1. Firstly, it would serve as the heating medium for the di-
lim its its app lications. gester.
2. Secondly, once the steam exchanges heat with the cook-
3.2.3 Sodium Sulphide ing liquor and the raw material the water present in the
cooking liquor evaporates due to increase in temperature
Sod iu m su lphid e is the chem ical com pou nd w ith difference. Then the initial concentration of the cooking

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the form u la N a 2S, or m ore com m only its hyd rate N a 2S·9H 2O. liquor is not maintained which would result in weak
Both are colou rless w ater-solu ble salts that give strong- cooking. So, if steam is used, it condenses into the cook-
ly alkaline solu tions. When exposed to m oist air, N a 2S and its ing liquor after exchanging heat, there by maintaining the
hyd rates em it hyd rogen su lphid e, w hich sm ells like rotten concentration of the cooking liquor.
eggs. Som e com m ercial sam ples are specified as N a 2S·xH 2O,
w here a w eight percentage of N a2S is specified . Com m only Here, we do not use steam as heating source. If heat is continu-
available grad es have arou nd 60% N a 2S by w eight, w hich ously supplied the water present in the cooking liquor evaporates
m eans that x is arou nd 3. Su ch technical grad es of sod iu m su l- there by initial concentration of the cooking liquor is varied. To
phid e have a yellow ap pearance ow ing to the presence of p ol- bring back the concentration to initial we add water up to the
ysu lphid es. These grad es of sod iu m su lphid e are m arketed as marked level in the beaker. This is taken care of throughout the
'sod iu m su lp hid e flakes'. Althou gh the solid is yellow, solu - process of digesting.
tions of it are colou rless.
The heat is supplied by means of hot plate for about 4hr 30min at
a temperature of 90ºC. At the same time stirring is done continu-
4 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE FOR PRODUCATION OF ously throughout the process.
PULP (LAB SCALE)
In the process of digestion the strong basic cooking liquor and
4.1 Preparation of raw material the action of heat combine and help breaking the bonds in lignin
molecules. The broken lignin molecules dissolve in cooking liq-
Initially Groundnut Shells are taken and w ashed several times uor there by turning it into dark brown color called as Black liq-
with water to remove du st and soil particles present on it.Later it uor and cellulose remaining unaltered is present in the cooking
is cut into long pieces. They are crushed to remove w ater content medium as brown stock along with the traces of lignin .
and later dried at 80ºC for about 30 minutes to further reduce the
water content. 4.3 Soda Pulping
In this process, 20% by w eight solu tion of N aOH is r equ ired as
4.2 Kraft’s Pulping cooking liqu or.If w e take 1000m l as basis 20% by w eight gives
200gram s of N aOH . These 200 gram s of N aOH is d issolved in
For cooking liquor to be prepared chemicals must be taken in
w ater and m akeu p to 1000m l to give requ ired concentration of
right proportions so that effective cooking would happen. Kraft
cooking liqu or.Once the cooking liqu or is prepared , 5 gram s of
pulping consists of following chemicals-N aOH, N a 2SO 4, and
raw m aterial is taken in 400m l of cooking liqu or in 1000m l
N a 2CO 3. These three chemicals must combine to give total of
beaker and the level is m arked .The reason for the m arking the
12.5% by weight solution.
level is alread y d escribed above in Kraft’s process. The sam e
In this 12.5% of solution, according to Kraft’s pulping solids anal-
reason ap plies here too. And w ater m u st be ad d ed continu ou s-
ysis says-
ly to m aintain the initial concentration of the cooking liqu or
-58.6% is N aOH,
and this process m u st be repeated entire boiling tim e.
-27.1% is N a2SO 4, and
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N ext, It is heated to abou t 90˚C (boiling) for 4hr 30m in w ith

continu ou s stirring. Bu t the heat is not enou gh as the cooking
liqu or is w eak basic com p ared to Kraft process. So, it is heated
for one m ore hou r to increase the effectiveness of heat and
cooking liqu or in breaking the lignin m olecu les and d issolving
in the cooking liqu or.

Fig 4 Bleaching
4.5 Drying

Drying is d one to find the yield in both the processes. To find

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the yield entire w ater in the bleached pu lp m u st be removed .
To rem ove entire w ater content in the bleached pu lp, it is d ried
at a tem peratu re of 100ºC for one hou r in hot air oven.

5 OVERALL VIEW OF THE PROCESS

Fig 3 Cooking
5.1 Drying
4.3 Filtration and washing of pulp
After d igesting, brow n stock and black liqu or are form ed . Grou nd nu t shells after w ashing w ith w ater is cru shed and
Brow n stock contains pu lp (cellu lose and hem i-cellu lose) and sent into d rier.
sm all am ou nts of lignin (reason for brow n color).And the
black liqu or contains the d issolved lignin and cooking chem i-
cals that are u nconverted and can be recovered . The m ixtu re
filtered u sing cloth to obtain black liqu or as w aste that con-
tains cooking chem icals that can be recovered . One tim e filtra-
tion d oesn’t rem ove the lignin traces com pletely. So, once the
filtration is d one it is again w ashed w ith w ater to let lignin
and chem icals associated w ith the brow n stock to d issolve in
it. And , this m ixtu re is again filtered w ith the cloth and this
process is repeated .

It is w ashed several tim es w ith 1000m l of w ater to red u ce the

lignin content (abou t 5 times).Finally, the obtained prod u ct 5.1 Digesting
from the filtration m u st be in su ch a w ay that lignin traces
m u st be less in am ou nts. 5 gram s of d ried Grou nd nu t shells are taken into beaker along
w ith 400m l of cooking liqu or and boiled for 4hr 30m in at 90°C.
4.4 Bleaching Later brow n stock and black liqu or form ed w hich are separat-
ed .
Once filtration and w ashing is com pleted the w ashed p u lp is
d issolved in 200m l of w ater to w hich 5gr am s bleaching pow -
d er is ad d ed to com pletely rem ove the brow n color to obtain
w hite paper grad e pu lp.

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At the same pulp obtained after bleaching is also com-

pared. The pulp obtained after bleaching is observed and
found that Kraft pulp is whiter in colour compared to soda
process, as bleaching agent required breaking the traces of
lignin is more in soda process than Kraft process.

S.No Process Groundnut Pulp Produced

shells taken (grams)
(grams)
The above is the m ain process involved in the pu lping. Once
the d igesting is com pleted brow n stock is w ashed w ith w ater 1 Kraft’s Process 5 1.735
and bleached . Black liqu or is sent to chem ical recovery section.
2 Soda Process 5 1.273

6 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

7 CONCLUSION
Firstly, describing about the heat required for digesting,
Kraft process required only 4hr 30min for breaking lignin After experimenting and observing the entire process of
molecules. But soda process required more heat for diges- operation, there are certain conclusions made and listed
tion and yet could not obtain effective digestion as ground- below. They are:
nut shell material is still present as it is in the beginning on
the water cooking liquor surface. 1. Though Soda process require only one chemical but in

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large amounts to effectively break the lignin bonds. Kraft
Secondly, Kraft’s process consists of strong cooking liquor process requires fewer amounts of different chemicals and
which can break the lignin more effectively. Where as soda also helps in complete lignin molecule breakage. From this
process consist of weak cooking liquor. Because of this we can conclude that Kraft process is more advantageous.
reason we can find the traces lignin is more in Soda pro-
cess than Kraft process. 2. In terms of heat requirement Kraft process is more ad-
vantage, because the cooking liquor is able to break and
dissolve the lignin in it. Soda process is supplied with heat
for one hour more and still the cooking liquor could not ef-
fectively digest the lignin.

3. Pulp obtained after washing is added with bleaching

agent. The amount of bleaching agent required is more in
Soda process when compared to Kraft process. So, the
pulp obtained in Kraft process can be used for high grade
paper production. Pulp obtained by Soda process can be
used for low grade paper production. But the discussion
here is about the packing paper, so, the pulp must be en-
tirely lignin free, because it acts as an impurity and may
vary the conditions of the packed material. By this we can
conclude that Kraft process is safer.

4. Finally, coming to the yield from the observations Kraft

process gave more pulp for fixed amount of raw material
when compared with Soda process. So, Kraft process is
more advantageous.
Fig 5 Washed Pulp in both Kraft’s & Soda Process
From the above observations we conclude that
Product obtained after washing with water is compared in Kraft Process is safer and more efficient based on yield.
both the processes.The pulp obtained in Kraft process in
less dark in colour than pulp obtained in soda process. The
reason for this is, pulp obtained in Kraft process contain
less lignin content in it due to strong basic nature of the
solution which break the lignin effectively. Soda process
involves weak basic cooking liquor that acts weak in break-
ing lignin bonds.
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7 ACKNOWLEDEMENT

We w ou ld like to acknow led ge the gu id ance and su pp ort pro-

vid ed by Shri. K Su brahm anyam (Sci/ Eng, ISRO), Shri. S
Praveen Ku m ar (Sci/ Eng, ISRO). Shri. Vipin (Sci/ Eng, ISRO),

8 REFERENCES

[1]. procedure to determine pentosan content present in

various soft and hard woods by using hydrochloric acid and
furfural, Johansson.
[2]. production of paper from Groundnut shell, T Goswami,
Dipul Kalita* & P G Rao [1], North East Institute of Science
and Technology (CSIR).
[3]. improvement of paper properties, Yuan-Shing Perng
and Eugene I-Chen Wang.
[4]. cellulose content in both hard woods and soft woods,
Sunday Albert Lawal and Benjamin Iyenagbe Ugheoke[5],
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University
of Technology, Nigeria.
[5]. Shrieves chemical process industries.

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