PER-0398 M24 Extracting pineapple leaf fibre ‘The design was modified to improve the scraping action by making the feeding mecha nism a flat bed with an adjustable ratchet that also scratches the leaves. The blades on the scraping roller were adjusted to sit at different Experiments may enable small farmers to make the most of thelr agricultural waste, transforming the leaves from pineapple plants into useful byproducts. D. Paul and his colleagues describe rogess so far. ‘THE LEAVES OF the pineapple plant contain valuable long fibres, that can be used in indus rial applications in place of jute and other bast fibres. They can be used to inake heavy fabrics such a5 upholstery material or curtains, and in industrial applications such as tyres and con- ‘eyor bells. The very small amount of pineapple Fibre that is available now is in great demand, and stepping up production could reduce agri- cultural waste and give farmers an additional Every pineapple plant (Ananas cosmasus) has between 80 and 100 leaves, most of which are either thrown away or burned after the fruit has been harvested. With over 60 000 acres of pineapple plantation in India, that is a lot of waste, so the Jute Technological Research Labo- ratory (JTRL) in Caleuta decided to investigate whether the fibre from the leaves could be used inthe same way as other plant fibres Past experience temps to develop processes fo extract pineap ple leat freon a commercial scale have been tried before,'-? but the only research successes. were either unrepredacble, or were simply not onomialyfeableIn fect the sal quantity of fibre already available inthe markets roe dlced using traditional method. These methods vary from place to place, bet areal based on Tmunal or machine. decoration (removal of fuer layer followed by ring ening by soaking) and/or washing. The fibre often turns ‘out gummy, which causes problems during fur- ther processing and makes the fibres susceptible omicrobial damage. Researchers at the STRL observed that the fibre cannot be extracted by the submerged re- ‘ing process that people use with other fibrous plants because the pineapple leat has a thick waxy layer, itis Very dificult forthe reting microbes t0 get ino the leaf. Preliminary trials showed that ifthe leaves ae lightly scraped then the retting action is greatly improved Design In tight ofthese observations, the researchers et out to design a ea scraping machine that was portable: Tow-coit and affordable even to marginal 8compact modular design for easy opera thon and (© operated manually, but adaptable 1o power. Te frst item to be designed was the small scraping rolle. It was 87mm in diameter and 125mm wide, with 27) 3mm-thick scraping blades made from mild steel plate and welded 10 the roller It was mounted on two vertical brack. ets and rotated against an adjustable depth plate ‘Which is positioned according tothe thickness of the leaves, The leaves were fed through the machine by a pair of splined (grooved, like the cogs ofa gear) rollers on either side ofthe seap ing roller Experimental trials with this proto type showed that although the feed and’ drive ‘motions and the position of the blades were Satisfactory, the leaves were not adequately aripped by the seraper roller and the waxy layer ‘was not fully removed in all cases, The modified seraper roller has angled blades, which scrape the whole surface ofthe leaf. The operator feeds the leaves through angles, prolonging the seraping action. The pro totype is now operated by a cycle mechanism mounted on a tripod on which the operator also sits, The machine weighs about 39kg and will ‘cost around Rs 5000, Microbial retting As expected, after scraping the reting action twas much accelerated, as the microbes were le fo penetrate the faves. The reting period must be strcly controlled to prevent over re ting, however, which esl in loss of stength in the fibres. The use of selective micro-organ- isms as inoculum produced the est ress, and 16 different actria e being ideal. Eletron extracted fibres showed that they were separated ‘more effectively using this mechano-mierobial process than a decorticaion process References 1. GC. Biswas, KL, Ghosh and A.K, Hana, “Annual Repoa Jute Agicaltual Research lnsiue, Bat rackpore, Wes Bengal, 1976. 9.73 IK. Ghosh ‘Stuy on some physical properties of pineapple leaf fibre in relation os technological Spplicnion. PAD Thesis, Calewts, Unive 1589, SK. Bhanacharyya and N.B. Paul A simpletest for assessing comparative resitance of vegetable fibees to microbial damage’. Curren! Science 46, 1977 paw, D. Paul, SK. Bhattacharyya,’ S. Banik, MK. Basu, and AB. Mulherjee are with the Jue Technological Research Laboratories, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, 12 Regent Park, Calcurta — 700 040, India. Fax: +91 033 712583. K-mail: jrl@x400.niegvenicin