The effect of steam explosion treatment on the separation of lotus fiber

Lotus fiber is served as a novel kind of slender, soft and fragrant natural cellulose fiber which own perfect moisture absorption, good ventilation and culture meaning. However, current extraction approaches of lotus fiber usually exhibit low efficiency and high cost which limit its development and utilization. In this paper, based on the biological structure of lotus petiole, the steam explosion method is carried on for lotus fiber extraction from the separated vascular bundles. The morphologies of the samples exploded in different conditions of prepreg conditions, explosion pressure and residence times were sequentially characterized by SEM. The results show that the resulting lotus fiber is separated efficient while, under 5% sodium hydroxide prepreg conditions, the pressure is 1.5 MPa and residence time at 160 s. Therefore, this kind of steam explosion treatment can be proposed as the reasonable method for lotus fiber extraction. The present study can provide preliminary basis for the high efficiency production of lotus fiber through physical and mechanical method.