This project supports a cooperative project by the Dr. Adriane Ludwick and Dr. Heshmat Aglan, Department of Chemistry at Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama and Dr. Mohamed Ashour, Faculty of Engineering and Dr. Abdel-Aziz Said, Chemistry Department at Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt. They plan to study the properties of bagasse (sugarcane cellulose residue) for utilization in production of materials for agricultural and pharmaceutical applications. Specifically, they will implement a scheme for the grafting of agricultural and pharmaceutical agents to bagasse. These grafted products will be designed so that the active agent can be time-released. The choice of reagents will be based on environmental considerations (green chemistry). The synthesis/characterization and application of these materials will be studied. Students and faculty from both institutions will be involved. The team of researchers, and the administrators of their respective institutions, will present a workshop in Assiut, towards the end of the second year, on the results of this effort. The purpose will be to display the results to potential end-users, as well as to develop a plan for the continuation of the project beyond the two-year period of support. The intellectual merit of the work stems from addressing a challenging chemical process. This involves grafting functionalized molecules on the cellulosic bagasse fibers. The process involves the selection, synthesis and characterization of specific chemical groups to tailor the properties of the modified material. The utilization of the green chemistry concept provides another challenge in the development of the materials in this work. Processing techniques for obtaining desired attributes required in the use of the modified bagasse with optimum efficiency involve well-designed thermal and mechanical processes, including heating, mixing, size reduction, and packaging.
Scope: The results of this project will include the advancement of grafting technology for use on agricultural waste, the conversion of indigenous waste to added value materials, the transfer of the knowledge gained in the synthesis and characterization of the bagasse to other natural fibers such as those from the palm tree, the integration of research and education by training future scientists and engineers, and the introduction of the green chemistry concept into the Egyptian scientific community. The strengthening of an extant cooperative arrangement between Tuskegee University and Assiut University is planned. During the period of 2000 to 2003, the two universities were involved in a study of the science and engineering aspects of a modified bagasse for the purification of oil-contaminated water. The project has resulted in a patent application on the preparation of the modified bagasse. The process involves the binding of a fatty acid to the cellulose backbones of bagasse. One intriguing property of the bagasse used in this study is the nanoscale pores, and this provides a very large surface area for absorption and/or grafting.
