Experimental Procedure for HPMC Preparation of Raw material Chopping: Banana stem waste, thrown away by farmers after

harvesting of fruits, is procured as raw material. The stems are chopped into small pieces of 3-4 size by a woman worker, usually at a rate of about 100 kg material per day. This can be done either at the farm itself or at the production unit Cold digestion: The material is soaked in 1-2% NaOH for appropriate period. The alkali loosens the ligno-cellulosic bonds, thereby softening the material. Washing: The softened material is transferred to bamboo baskets and washed with water to remove the black liquor of sodium lignite and unused alkali. Beating: The washed material is then subjected to beating in a Hollander beater. Two actions take place here: (a) initial cutting of the material into small pieces, and (b) separation of fibre from the non-cellulosic material. This is followed by a wet beating. In this process, internal fibrillation of the fibres takes place. A period of three to four hours of beating is required for a getting good quality pulp. Depending upon the quality of boards to be produced, appropriate amount of fillers, loading material or chemicals are used during wet beating. For production of hard boards, suitable quantity of resins like urea formaldehyde and phenol formaldehyde are added in the beater itself while maintaining pH. Storage: After completion of beating process, the pulp is delivered to a storage tank located constructed close to the beater.

Production of HPMC Mercirization: preparing alkali cellulose by reacting cellulose with a concentrated sodium hydroxide solution in amount to provide from about 0.25 to about 0.45 part by weight of sodium hydroxide per part by weight of cellulose. Etherification: reacting said alkali cellulose with a mixture containing from about 1.5 to 4 `parts of propylene oxide and from 0.4 to about 0.8 part of methyl chloride per part by weight of cellulose in the alkali cellulose, the amounts of propylene oxide and methyl chloride employed in the total reaction being adjusted to provide at least 1 mole of methyl chloride for each mole of sodium hydroxide incorporated in the alkali cellulose a Filtration/Washing: The slurried material is transferred to a series of filters to wash the sodium chloride and residual organics from the HPMC material. HPMC is purified by washing with hot water. Small soluble portions of hemicellulose ethers, degraded shortchain oligomers and low molecular weight glycol ether byproducts are extracted along with the salt into the wastewater. Any residuals or unreacted raw materials such as methyl chloride or propylene oxide are also removed in this washing step.

Drying: The HPMC wet cake from the filter step is discharged into a dryer. The feed rate and dryer temperature are set and monitored by computer control to ensure a dry product. Size Reduction The dry material is ground to achieve the desired particle size. Batch Homogenization: As a result of the product variation imposed by the use of a natural raw material (pulp), and the batch-to-continuous-to-batch nature of this process, it is necessary to mix our final batches in blenders prior to packaging to assure homogeneity.