Abstract:
Rocket fuel (propellant) is a strategic raw material to be developed. The main ingredient manufacture
of propellant is the nitrocellulose. One of cellulose that can be used as raw material for the
manufacture of nitrocellulose is cellulose from waste palm midrib. The purpose of this research is to
increase the α-cellulose palm midrib be greater than 92% through the purification process with
xylanase enzyme and Looking ratio HNO3: H2SO4 and nitric acid concentration the best on a nitration
process on a laboratory scale. Before doing nitration, palm midrib must go through several stages of
purification such as extraction, hydrolysis, delignification and purification using and xylanase enzyme.
After that, the nitration process by reaction with nitric acid and sulfuric acid for 90 minutes, stirring
speed of 165 rpm and temperature <15oC with variations in the ratio of nitric acid and sulfuric acid as
well as variations in the concentration of nitric acid. Nitrocellulose is then performed FTIR analysis to
see the group substituted with -NO2 and observation of the flame to see the content of nitrogen in the
nitrocellulose. The resulting cellulose has a content α-cellulose 96.25% and nitrocellulose produced
by using the best conditions ratio of nitric acid and sulfuric acid 1:2 (% w/w) and the concentration of
nitric acid 60% had higher levels of nitrogen were estimated 12.73% because substitusing 2 group-
NO2. So it can be concluded that α-cellulose of the palm frond can be used for the manufacture of
nitrocellulose as a rocket fuel (propellant).
