Tóm tắt

A study on pilot scale nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) production from agricultural waste biomass hasrnbeen conducted to determine its feasibility. Current technologies and availability of raw materials wasrnexamined and processes that are suitable are incorporated towards the design of a pilot plant. The overallrnprocess is displayed as a flow sheet and material and energy balances for the process with a plant-widernsimulation using Aspen Plus software was conducted. The product, nanocrystalline cellulose was pro-duced by using acid hydrolysis and is capable of achieving 98% of purity. Moreover, the scenario analysisrnwhich analyses base, best and worst case for economics of the plant is also conducted along with a break-even analysis in every case. From the economic analysis for base case, the total capital investment for thernplant will be RM 107,601,898 and annual production rate will be 25,000 tonnes. By assuming that massrnproduction will decrease the price of NCC currently, the price of NCC is set at RM 5772 with a ROI of 23%/rnyear and 4.34 years for the payback period. The annual net profit will be RM 24,812,768.04 after includingrnthe total operating cost of RM 111,651,621.