Oil palm empty fruit bunch biomass as a renewable feedstock for energetic nitrocellulose

Nitrocellulose (NC) is a strategic energetic material commonly produced from cotton linters or wood pulp, resources that are increasingly constrained and largely imported in Indonesia. This study investigated oil palm empty fruit bunches (OPEFB), an abundant lignocellulosic residue from the palm oil industry, as an alternative feedstock for nitrocellulose production. Cellulose was extracted through alkali-assisted autoclave pretreatment followed by hydrogen peroxide-acetic anhydride bleaching and subsequently converted to nitrocellulose via mixed-acid nitration. Response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to optimize both cellulose extraction and nitration processes. The optimum pretreatment conditions (60 min alkali pretreatment and 3% acetic anhydride) increased cellulose purity to 85.64% and enhanced cellulose crystallinity through effective lignin and hemicellulose removal. Structural characterization by FTIR, XRD, and SEM confirmed cellulose purification and successful nitration. The optimum nitration conditions, corresponding to a cellulose-to-acid ratio of 1:45 and 60 min reaction time, produced nitrocellulose with a nitrogen content of 12.87% within the range of commercial military grade nitrocellulose. Thermal analysis revealed favorable energetic decomposition behavior and good thermal stability. These findings demonstrate that OPEFB-derived cellulose is a promising renewable feedstock for producing nitrocellulose with high nitrogen content, providing a sustainable pathway for biomass valorization while reducing dependence on imported cellulose resources.