Speaker
Description
Banana and plantain cultivation in Ghana is predominant and contributes substantially to the economy of the country. The banana/plantain plant, after fruit harvesting, generates significant agricultural waste in the form of the pseudo-stem, which is mostly discarded. About 100 million tons of banana/plantain agro-waste are discarded annually. The pseudo-stems of the plant consist of natural fibre that can be utilised for industrial and other purposes. The plants exist in different varieties, and unfortunately, the properties of the fibre from them are not known. This study identifies nine varieties and estimates their properties. The varieties identified are Apem, Oniaba, Apantu, Asante Kwadu, Brodepa, Aborɔfo Kwadu, Cavendish Williams, Cavendish Grand Nain, and Cavendish Zilick. The engineering properties are such that, tensile strength varied from 562.64 MPa in Cavendish Williams to 2044.45 MPa in Aborɔfo Kwadu. Aborɔfo Kwadu had the smallest fibre diameter (0.038 mm ± 0.011), and Apantu the largest (0.115 mm ± 0.025). Elongation was lowest in Apantu (1.33% ± 0.55) and highest in Cavendish Zilick (4.48% ± 1.78). Young’s modulus varied from 15.26 GPa in Apantu to 56.37 GPa in Aborɔfo Kwadu, density from 0.753 g/cm³ in Cavendish Williams to 1.323 g/cm³ in Brodepa, and fibre yield from 0.264% in Cavendish Zilick to 1.534% in Aborɔfo Kwadu. The availability of these properties will enable the banana and plantain fibre from Ghana to be used for various applications, with the prediction of performance. It also offers banana/plantain farmers a secondary income from agrowaste without compromising food security.
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