Valorization of Waste Office Paper for Extraction of Microcrystalline Cellulose and Its Characterization

Waste paper classified as municipal solid waste is often dumped in landfills or incinerated. As a low-cost source of lignocellulosic elements, the waste paper can be converted into cellulose microcrystals. Microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) is becoming increasingly important as an alternative to non-renewable and limited fossil fuels due to its broad use in sectors such as food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and polymer composites. Because of its sustainability, non-toxicity, affordability, biodegradability, outstanding mechanical properties, and high surface area, MCC has steadily earned a greater amount of attention in recent years. To meet the growing need for manufacturing new types of MCC-based products on an industrial scale, novel sources, separation procedures, and treatments are continuously being developed. This study aims to extract MCC from waste office paper as a novel source through acid hydrolysis. The synthesized MCCs were subjected to structural and compositional characterization. The MCCs obtained from both sources exhibited a crystalline nature with a particle size distribution of 0.6–1.1 µm, and the length-to-cross-section ratio was found to be 10:1. The FTIR analysis revealed the absence of peaks corresponding to lignin in the extracted MCC. The extracted MCC showed a yield percentage of 79.5 ± 1.2%. Thus, waste office paper can act as a potential and sustainable source for extraction of MCC for application in various fields.