TY - JOUR
T1 - Microwave assisted retting - A novel method ofprocessing of flax stems
AU - Raveendran Nair, Gopu
AU - Rho, Denis
AU - Yaylayan, Varoujan
AU - Raghavan, Vijaya
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors are grateful to NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) and FQRNT (Fonds québécois de recherche sur la nature et les technologies) for the financial support for this study.
PY - 2013/12
Y1 - 2013/12
N2 - A new method for retting of flax stem was introduced by using microwave energy. The combined effect of pre-soaking, microwave volumetric heating and the non-thermal effect of microwave energy were applied in the retting of flax stem. Effective retting was observed in various combinations of pre-soaking, Microwave treatment times and microwave energy. The samples soaked for 24 and 36h with microwave treatments of 20min showed better retting efficiency. Fried tests, Near Infrared analysis and fibre diameter analysis were done to find out the retting efficiency. The effect of non-thermal effect of microwave in flax retting was proved experimentally. Colourimetric tests and tensile strength tests were conducted to compare the quality of fibres after microwave retting and no significant changes in the physical qualities were observed. The water released after pre-soaking was not contaminated because of less microbial activity in short duration of the entire process. In industrial point of view, this method is acceptable because of the ease of recyclability of the pre-soaked water and comparably short duration of the process.
AB - A new method for retting of flax stem was introduced by using microwave energy. The combined effect of pre-soaking, microwave volumetric heating and the non-thermal effect of microwave energy were applied in the retting of flax stem. Effective retting was observed in various combinations of pre-soaking, Microwave treatment times and microwave energy. The samples soaked for 24 and 36h with microwave treatments of 20min showed better retting efficiency. Fried tests, Near Infrared analysis and fibre diameter analysis were done to find out the retting efficiency. The effect of non-thermal effect of microwave in flax retting was proved experimentally. Colourimetric tests and tensile strength tests were conducted to compare the quality of fibres after microwave retting and no significant changes in the physical qualities were observed. The water released after pre-soaking was not contaminated because of less microbial activity in short duration of the entire process. In industrial point of view, this method is acceptable because of the ease of recyclability of the pre-soaked water and comparably short duration of the process.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2013.10.004
DO - 10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2013.10.004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84886484110
SN - 1537-5110
VL - 116
SP - 427
EP - 435
JO - Biosystems Engineering
JF - Biosystems Engineering
IS - 4
ER -