Sustainable Extraction and Characterization of Cellulose from Plantain (Musa paradisiaca) Pseudo-stem Collected in Ekpoma, Edo State, Nigeria

Plantain (Musa paradisiaca) pseudo-stem is an abundant, non-edible agricultural residue that offers a sustainable lignocellulosic resource for industrial cellulose production. This study investigated the extraction, purification and characterization of cellulose derived from plantain pseudo-stem collected in Ekpoma, Edo State, Nigeria. Pseudo-stem powder was subjected to solvent extraction, modified kraft pulping and multistage sodium hypochlorite–hydrogen peroxide bleaching and the resulting cellulose was benchmarked against commercial cellulose using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermogravimetric/differential thermal analysis (TG/DTA). The pseudo-stem contained 90.84 ± 5.18% moisture, while crude cellulose yield of 31.85 ± 3.48% was refined to 26.25 ± 2.37% after purification. SEM revealed progressive removal of non-cellulosic components and enhanced fibre exposure and FTIR confirmed substantial delignification and hemicellulose removal. XRD analysis showed an increase in crystallinity from 52.24% in the raw pseudo-stem to 81.21% in the purified cellulose, exceeding the 77.53% crystallinity of commercial cellulose and indicating a highly ordered cellulose structure. TG/DTA indicated improved thermal stability and a decomposition profile comparable to commercial cellulose. Enzymatic hydrolysis with Aspergillus niger cellulolytic enzymes was strongly influenced by pH and temperature, with maximum glucose release at pH 6.5 and 30–40°C. The data demonstrates that modified kraft process coupled with multistage bleaching effectively produced high-purity, highly crystalline cellulose from plantain pseudo-stem, indicating its viability as a renewable biomaterial for biorefinery, biofuel production and other value-added industrial applications.