The Study of pH and Temperature Effect in Ramie Fibers Degumming Process Using Pectinase Enzyme

Ramie fiber is a material derived from hemp bark.This fiber is still in a bundles form, because it is
bound by a layer of gum. This adhesive must be removed because the ramie fiber needs to break
down into strands of fibers before it can be spun into yarn.The degumming process aims to remove as
many gum compounds as possible from the strands of ramie fibers. In crude ramie fibers, the gum
content ranges from 25% -30%. After degumming process, the results of bleaching shows that the
content of pectin found in ramie fibers decreases. Degumming process on ramie fibers uses pectin as
enzyme that has the ability to hydrolyze pectin in ramie fibers content. The pectinase enzyme
produced by microbes was chosen because of its advantages, such as low production cost, high
production capacity, and, in a short time, easily affected productivity – by changing the pH and
temperature. In order to determine the effect of pH and temperature on the physical properties of the
fibers, the pH in the experiment ranged from 5, 6, 7 and 8, while the temperature ranged from 60 – 70
C. Based on the research that has been done, the pH and temperature have an effect on the results of
the ramie fibers degumming process namely % weight reduction, tensile strength and whitenessness
index value. The optimum condition obtained was at pH 7 using a temperature of 700C with %
reduction in weight of 8.01%, tensile strength of 18.76 g/ tex and a whitenessness index of 47.15%.