Date Palm Byproducts in Other Fields of Applications

Abstract

An important research has been conducted to investigate the feasibility of production of furfural from date palm midribs using a sulfuric acid-catalyzed hydrolysis process. In this research, the effect of reaction temperature, liquid-to-solid ratio, acid concentration and reaction time were investigated, and their optimum values determined to attain the maximum furfural yield. Furfural and its derivatives are considered as important chemicals due to their various applications. For example, furfural alcohol is employed in chemical industry as an additive or solvent in the manufacture of different resins. In addition, furfural is used as a selective solvent for the separation of saturated from unsaturated compounds in petroleum refining, gas oil and diesel fuel industries. In addition, furfural is also used as a fungicide, weedkiller and as a feedstock for the production of tetrahydrofuran. In most of the date-producing countries in the Arab world the products of pruning of date palms (e.g., leaflets, midribs, spadix stems, petioles and leaf sheaths fibers) are being treated as waste. i.e., open-field burnt or sent to landfills. This represents a great loss of such an important treasure of locally available renewable resources. As a response to this situation, an important research has been conducted with the objective of isolation and structural characterization of hemicellulose-type polysaccharides from date palm leaflets and midribs. The hemicellulose-type polysaccharides were successfully extracted from the leaflets and midribs of the date palms. The sugar analysis and nuclear magnetic resonance measurements indicate that they belong to xylans family. This may open new potentialities for the economic utilization of date palm products of pruning. A study has been conducted to investigate the potentiality of transforming the date palm midrib into sizing agent for use in the textile industry as a substitute for expensive commercial products imported from aboard. The date palm midribs were collected from Monastir (Tunisia). To obtain sodium cellulose carboxyl methylate (NaCMC), the cellulose was transformed into alkali-cellulose, and then etherification agent (monochloroacetic acid) was then introduced. The performance of NaCMCs was then compared to that of the imported commercial product. To conduct yarn sizing, 100% cotton yarns were utilized. To evaluate the performance of the sized yarn, the yarn hairiness and the load and elongation at break were measured. Hairiness is defined as the number of fibrils outside the main axis of the yarn. The results of this research prove the potentiality of use of date palm midrib in the manufacture of sizing materials for yarn as a substitute for expensive imported commercial products. A research has been conducted with the purpose of extracting cellulose fibers from date palm petioles. The date palm petioles were collected in Monastir, Tunisia. The samples were air-dried, milled and sieved to a grain size between 200 µm and 1 mm. The extraction of fibers was conducted under alkaline conditions to remove hemicellulose and break the hydrogen bonds and the hydrolyzed ester groups. The chemical composition of the date palm petioles was determined and found: 1,4% extractives, 27.5% lignin and 67.7% holocellhouse. In this work, it was possible to extract and purify cellulose fiber from date palm petioles with a yield of 42%. Moreover, the solubility of cellulose in ionic liquid (N-buthyl-N-methylpyrrolidium buthyl-dibutthylphosphate) allowed the dissolving of 11 g of cellulose per 100 g of this ionic liquid at 80 °C. The results of this study provide an environment-friendly method of dissolving cellulose from date palm petioles. It also represents an eloquent example of valorization of date palm products of pruning generally treated as waste. A research has been conducted to evaluate the potentiality of use of date palm seeds powder in sealing of fractures in oil wells. The expenses of drilling of oil wells represent 25% of the total oilfield exploitation cost. The drilling fluids represent 15 to 18% of the total cost of petroleum well drilling operations. One of the problems in well drilling is the loss of drilling liquids into drilling-induced fractures or natural fractures in wells. Therefore, it is necessary to find appropriate materials that can efficiently seal these fractures during drilling operations. In this research two superior fracture seal materials made from crushed date palm seeds and shredded waste tires were tested in laboratory conditions to seal artificially fractured holes under high temperature and pressure conditions. Mixtures of either crushed date palm seeds or shredded waste car tires of different grain sizes proved its ability to completely seal the samples at pressures up to 1000 psi and temperature up to 90 °C. In addition to its superior ability to seal the fractured formations, the date palm seeds are cheap, locally available in commercial quantities, environmentally friendly and easy to crush into various required grain sizes. A research has been conducted to study the effect off using a perforated plate on the sound absorption of date palm leaf sheaths fibers. To conduct this research, fibers were collected from the sheathing leaf bases and dried in shade at room temperature for 2 days. The pulp (paranchyma) was removed from fibers by combing and the fibers were then scrapped to remove the pulp completely. The average diameter and density of the fibers were 0.408 mm and 919 kg/m³ respectively. The plastic molds were fabricated with diameters 28 mm and 100 mm to suit the two impedance tubes used in this research. The thickness and density of prepared samples were 30 mm and 77 kg/m³ <inf>,</inf> respectively. The frequency span of the experiment was 100–5000 Hz with 3 Hz resolution. An aluminum performed plate was used to enhance the sound absorption. The experiment was conducted for the panel without air gap, with air gap of 10, 20 and 30 mm between the date palm fiber sample and the rigid backing of the impedance tube. The use of the perforated plate has led to the increase of the absorption coefficient between 1000 and 3000 Hz by shifting the peak toward the low frequency range. However, the sound absorption coefficient decreased above 3000 Hz and the peak decreased by 4%. The results show that the best performance for improving the sound absorption at low frequency range can be achieved using the date palm leaf sheaths fibers combined with the perforated plate facing and the 10 mm air gap backing. The performance of the date fibers can be improved by increasing the samples density and using plates with different perforations.