Conversion of sugarcane by product (filter cake mud) from Savannah sugar company Nigeria, into commercial paste shoe polish

Transcription

1 Journal of Advanced & Applied Sciences (JAAS), 1 (1): 11-19, Academic Research Online Publisher. Research Paper Conversion of sugarcane by product (filter cake mud) from Savannah sugar company Nigeria, into commercial paste shoe polish Jibril Mohammed a*, Kawuwa Dawaki a a Chemical Engineering Programme, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, Nigeria. * Corresponding author. Tel.: address: jibrilmuhammad@gmail.com A b s t r a c t Keywords: Production, Shoe polish, Filter cake, Sugar cane, Cane wax. This research work presents the production of paste shoe polish from sugar cane filter cake mud (the by-products of Savannah Sugar Company, Nigeria). The cane mud was found to contain an average of 8.1% extractible material of which % was cuticle cane wax, 27.09% was fatty oil and 19.96% was resinous material. The wax obtained had a specific gravity of 0.95% and a melting point of about 770C. The paste shoe polish samples were prepared using different wax and solvent compositions. Solvent retention and performance tests were done on all the samples and the result were found satisfactory on comparison with the results of the performance test done on some commercial shoe polish. Accepted: 16 November2013 Academic Research Online Publisher. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Sugarcane (saccharum officinarium) belongs to the family of Graminae/praceare. It originates from south pacific island and New Guinea, and from there it spreads to the rest of the world. It is the major raw material input for the sugar industry. It is one of the most important and leading cash crops of Pakistan, it is a crop of the tropical region, but the climate and agro ecological conditions in Pakistan are suitable for the economical production of sugarcane. In sugarcane was planted in Pakistan on an area of 9608 thousand hectares with production capacity of thousand tons. About 30% of the cane is crushed in sugar mills, 60% is used for making unrefined sugar and about 10% is retained. A small quantity is also produced as seed for chewing. The byproducts of the sugar industry are bagasse, molasses, filter cake and wax. Bagasse and molasses are used in the manufacture of paper, hardboard, livestock feed, alcohol, fertilizer as well as fuel for boilers [1]. Polish is usually a waxy paste or cream that is used to shine, waterproof and restore the

2 appearance of leather shoes or boots thereby extending the foot wears lifespan. As the name implies polishes are meant for use on smooth surfaces so as to restore the original lustre and finish of such surfaces. Various substances have been used as shoe polish for hundreds of years starting with natural substances like wax and tallow. Modern polish formulae were introduced early in 20 th century and some products from that era are still in use up till today. Shoe polish consists of a waxy colloidal emulsion, a substance composed of a number of partially immiscible liquids and solids. It is usually made from ingredients including naphtha, lanolin, turpentine, wax (often carnauba wax), gum Arabic, ethylene glycol, and if required a colorant such as carbon black or an azo-dye (such as aniline yellow). It typically has a specific gravity 0.8, it is negligibly soluble in water, and is made of between 65 and 77% volatile substance, which helps shoe polish to dry out and harden after application while retaining its shine [2, 6]. Lanoline, hydrophilic grease from wool bearing animals such as sheep or goats, acts as both water proofing wax and a bonding agent, giving the shoe polish its greasy feel and texture, it prevents the naphtha from evaporating until the polish has been spread and buffed into a thin film on the leather surface. An essential ingredient in shoe polish manufacture is thickener, without this the polish will be too runny making it difficult to use. Gum Arabic, a substance from two sub- Saharan species of the acacia tree is commonly used to increase the viscosity of the product. Shoe polishes contains chemical substance which can be absorbed through the skin or inhaled, during application, one should ideally wear gloves and stay in a well ventilated area while applying it. And will cause irritation to the eye if there is direct contact. The paste polished is non aqueous and translucent while the emulsion polish is milky in appearance and aqueous. Oil polishes are easy to apply but the polished surface easily attracts dust and finger marks. However, wax polishes are more difficult to apply on the surface and are more reliable in that little or no dust is attracted and no finger marks are shown. Nevertheless, it is better to use wax polish on shoes rather than oil polishes [3]. The applications of polish on the surfaces are done with the aid of an applicator. A number of companies that manufactured shoe care products also sell a liquid shoe polish in a squeezable plastic bottle, with a small sponge applicator at the end to decrease its viscosity. Bottled polish usually has very low wax content. There are many products closely related to shoe polish, but not strictly considered as such, other chemical products may be used to clean and shine shoes, in particular whiteners for white shoes and a variety of sprays and aerosols for cleaning and waterproofing suede shoes. Although shoe polish is primarily intended for leather shoes, some brands specify that they may be used on non porous materials such as vinyl. The polish is generally the same colour as the shoes it will be used upon [1-4]. 12 P age

3 For many years, efforts have been made to find practical uses for the by-products of processed sugarcane; chief among these is sugarcane filter cake mud. The mud is an abundant material, representing between 3.4% of the total crushed sugarcane and in this study, the dried sugarcane mud obtained from savannah sugar company, Numan contains about 8.04% extractible material which compares favourably well with other literatures as presented in table 1.. The sugar industry currently treats the vast bulk of this mud as a waste product thereby incurring handling cost which varies according to the government policies and environmental regulations [3,5]. However, if these by products are converted, it will add value to the sugar processing and refining industries. And it will also allow for the efficient elimination of the enormous waste material of the sugar industry which will help curb environmental hazards. Table 1: Comparison of this work with other literatures Ref. 6 Ref. 7 Ref. 8 This study Soxhlet (yield) extraction Melting point range ( 0 c) Saponification number Refractive index of wax at 25 0 c Refractive index of oil % recovery of oil 92.8% Performance of paste polish value P age

4 2. Experimental 2.1. Materials The materials employed for this research are filter cake mud obtained from Savvanah sugar company Numan, Adamawa state in Nigeria, other materials include commercial paraffin wax, petroleum ether and acetone used as solvents. 2.2 Methodology Soxhlet extraction of sugarcane wax 30.74g of sugarcane filter cake was weighed and transferred into an extraction thimble after which the thimble was tucked with cotton wool to avoid overflowing of the mud into the 500ml round bottom flask. Petroleum ether was added and the set up was switched on for the extraction process. The extraction was carried out for 3-4hrs, after which the sample was removed from the set up so as to allow for the recovery of the solvent. The solution of the crude wax in hot petroleum ether was cooled after which the precipitated crude wax was separated by centrifuging the solution. The deep green solution was decanted into another 500ml flask. Cold acetone was added to the mixture of fatty oil and the resinous material in order to leach out the fatty oil from the resinous material. The fatty oil in acetone remains at the top after centrifuging, the mixture was decanted into a flask and concentrated into a deep oily liquid Separation and purification of various constituents of the crude wax The crude extract was transferred into centrifuge test tubes at balanced weights, 2100rpm and a period of 45 minutes during which all the wax settled at the bottom of the tubes. The deep green solution (the wax free extract which is mainly fatty oil and resin) was decanted. Acetone was then added to the flask contents to leach out the oil. This mixture of fatty oil and resin was again centrifuged at 2100rpm and also for 45 minutes. This time the resinous material settled at the bottom of the tube leaving the fatty oil solution in acetone at the top. The oil solution was decanted into another 500ml flask after which the acetone was removed on a steam bath to yield a deep green viscous fluid. The weights of the fatty oil and resins were taken. The settled wax was removed and further washed until the purified form of the wax was obtained. The weight and melting point of the wax was recorded Preparation of shoe polish sample Paraffin wax and cuticle cane wax were weighed in the desired ratios and were transferred into a beaker. The beaker and the contents were then heated on a steam bath, until the waxes melted. The molten wax was continuously and properly stirred until all the waxes were completely mixed. The required proportions of the solvent (paraffin oil) was then added to the compounded waxes and 14 P age

5 properly stirred until a homogeneous mixture resulted. This was rapidly cooled on an ice bath. 3. Results and discussion The dried sugarcane mud obtained from savannah Sugar Company Numan contains about 8.04% extractible material as presented in table 2. After isolating the different components of this extract, it was found to contain 52.8% cuticle wax, 27.4% fatty oil, and 19.8% resinous material. A good amount of this oil is entrapped in the resinous material. This oil can be recovered by dissolving the residue in acetone during which the oil which dissolves in the acetone is obtained by centrifuging the mixture after which the acetone is driven off on a steam bath, leaving the fatty oil. With this result and bearing in mind that by 2020, it has been projected that a total production of tons of cane mud will be produced by savannah Sugar Company, it implies that tons of wax, tons of fatty oil and tons of resins will be obtained from this mud making the raw material readily available for commercial scale production. Table 2: Soxhlet Extraction data on percentage weight of extract Weight cuticle (g) of wax Weight of fatty oil (g) Weight resin(g) of Total weight of extract in mud (g) % cuticle cane wax in mud % fatty oil in mud % weight of extract Average The fatty oil produced was a dark green viscous fluid with a characteristic odour. The oil had an average density 0.86g/ml, a refractive index of at 25 0 C, saponification value of and iodine value of The wax obtained was yellow in colour with a melting point range of 75 0 C C with an average density of 0.95g/cm 3 and a refractive index of at 25 0 C. The fatty oil obtained was treated with inorganic 15 P age

6 bleaching reagents for decoloriztion. The bleaching agents applied are; sodium hypo chloride solution, hypochlorous acid, benzyl peroxide and hydrogen peroxide and the effects are presented in table 3. Treatment of the fatty oil with sodium hypo chloride (NaOCl) solution yielded a colourless aqueous layer and a pink hexane oil layer which gave rise to dark red sticky oil after evaporating the hexa, thereby saturating the oil. The same result was obtained with hypochlorous acid (HOCL) only that the oil obtained in this case was reddish brown. Application of benzyl peroxide yielded a pink homogeneous solution which gave dark red oil on evaporation. Hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) gave practically no improvement. Table 3: Decolourisation of Fatty Oils by Inorganic Bleaching Reagents Mixture Colour of aqueous layer Colour of hexane layer Colour of recovered oil Oil solution +HOCL Yellowish green Dark red Reddish brown Oil solution +H 2 O 2 Greenish Deep green Deep green Oil solution +benzyl Pink Dark red peroxide In paste shoe polish, solvent form about 60-70% w/w of the total polish composition and very small solvent losses are experienced when low evaporating solvents are used. These characteristics were exhibited by all the compounded waxes at solvent compositions 60% and 70% w/w when paraffin and fatty oil were used as solvents. However, paraffin oil seemed to have higher solvent retention than fatty oils. This can be seen by solvent losses which range between ( %) for fatty oils, and ( %) for paraffin oil as presented in table 4. Paraffin oil owes its excellent retention to its good drying properties. 16 P age

7 Table 4: Compounding of shoe wax at various compositions Sample No. Paraffin wax ratio Cane wax ratio % of paraffin oil Performance value As the paraffin wax mixture increases for the same cane wax composition, a sharp change in retention properties was not experienced. This is also expressed in a graph plot. Increase in cane wax composition in the same mixture gives an increase in solvent loss. This can be explained by the fact that paraffin wax develops a smooth surface on rapid cooling, which eliminates cracking through which solvent can be blended. Hence for good solvent retention, it is better to have more paraffin wax in the mixture. In fact compounded paraffin wax and cane wax in the ratio 2:1 gave a nice paste with solvent loss ranging from % and performance value ranging from as presented in table 4. presented in figure 1. The trend shows that as the paraffin wax mixture increases for the same cane wax composition, a sharp change in retention properties was not experienced for all the samples. This means that increase in cane wax composition in the same mixture gives an increase in solvent loss. This can be explained by the fact that paraffin wax develops a smooth surface on rapid cooling, which eliminates cracking through which solvent can be blended. Hence for good solvent retention, it is better to have more paraffin wax in the mixture because solvent retention increases with decrease in solvent composition. The performance values are in the neighbourhood of the measured performance of some commercial shoe polish as presented in table 1. The cumulative weight (g) against cumulative time in hours was plotted as 17 P age

8 0.003 Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3 Sample 4 Cumulative weight (g) Cumulative Time (Hr) Fig. 1: Solvent retention data for samples 1-4 showing that increase in cane wax composition in the same mixture gives an increase in solvent loss Performance of shoe polish is the ability of the polish to impart slipperiness on the surface. This depends on the type of solvents and waxes used and also the amount of solvent used. This means that samples with low performance values are easier to apply while samples with very high performance value are difficult to apply and as such they are not suitable for use. Also sample produced with fatty oil gave a comparatively better performance ( ). Low boiling point solvent such as petroleum ether ( C) are not suitable for use in paste polish in that they are not retained, they evaporate extractible material is reasonable enough to set up a commercial scale shoe polish manufacturing industry. A reasonably high quality product will be the outcome of such an investment. Fatty oils, paraffin oil and linseed oil can be used to substitute the traditional solvents because they are appreciably retained. For all the wax compositions, the performance of the shoe polish samples decreased with drop in solvent composition. Thus cane wax can be conveniently used for shoe polish manufacture. Two component compounded waxes can be used for shoe polish manufacture. immediately leaving a hard paste. 4. Conclusions The findings of this work coupled with the projected estimate of sugarcane mud to be produced by 2020, the 8% yield of the References [1] George, P.M., (2001), A manual for cane sugar manufacture and their Chemists Cane sugar handbook, 9 th edition. 18 P age

9 [2] Hilditch, T.P., (1999), The Industrial Chemistry of the fats and waxes. [3] Kirk and Othmer, Encyclopaedia of Chemical Technology 2 nd ed. Vol. 22. [4] Lewkonski, et al., (1999), Chemical Technology of oils fats and waxes 6 th Ed, vol 3. [5] Shurhabil, M., (2009), Extraction and Evaluation of cane wax, unpublished final year project, Chemical engineering department F.U.T. Yola. [6] Household products database, (2007), kiwi scuff magic black, National institute of health accessed November 27, from ( poroduct.nlm.nih.gov/egibili/household) [7] Morris, T., (2008), Protective coating compositions, U.S. patent accessed February 5, from ( ml). [8] North India database, (2009), shoe polish national informatics centre. Retrieved November 17, from ( 19 P age