THE FOLLOWING SPECIFICATION PARTICULARLY DESCRIBES THIS INVENTION AND THE MANNER IN WHICH IT IS TO BE PERFORMED:

This invention relates to a process for the defibering of coconut husk The traditional defibering process has the following steps

• The mature coconut husk was immersed in brackish or sea water for 8 to 10 months. This process is called retting of coconut husk

• After 8 to 10 months of retting the husks are removed from brackish water

• They are manually beaten to remove the coir fiber

• The coir pith - a by-product - gets accumulated in the defibering centers As a consequence of the traditional process just described

• A large amount of coir dust is generated and the dust is very slow in degradation

• In all defibering centers the dust causes severe environmental issues

• The coirpith generated accumulates lot of salt during the retting process and therefore this coirpith had no commercial value

• The 8 to 10 months retting of coconut husk in sea water or brackish inland water causes severe environmental disturbances

• Major health challenges evolve as a result of the environmental disturbance (for example elephantiasis, chicken gunia etc. spread by mosquitos)

• As a result of environmental causes this process has slowed down almost to zero level. Defibering by another known process

In this process the coconut husk is fed to heavy beating equipments which, by mechanical means, separate the coir fiber and coir dust. Drawbacks of this known process

• When dried husk is used for defibering it is soaked in water for easy processing and there is no control regarding the quality of the water that is used for soaking and very often the fiber and the pith get contaminated by Salmonellae, E-coli and Salt through the water that is used for soaking

• The major defects in this process are that the coir dust which naturally has a high content of salt and phenol gets accumulated in the processing centers

• Very often this dust is burnt releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

• During heavy rain the phenol in the coir pith heaps gets leached and this phenol contaminates the nearby soil and water sources. Therefore in places where we have high rainfall (for example Kerala) this project is severely opposed by the local people and local government bodies

• The dried coir pith also causes dust pollution

• When the defibering is done with heavy mechanical beaters part of the fiber gets cut and there is a reduction in length of the fiber and total quality fibre output gets reduced

• Another defect of this process is that the fiber generated has poor physical qualities and mechanical spinning of fibre into yarn is very difficult

• The coir pith also breaks down to smaller particles enhancing the dust pollution in these areas.

• The coirpith produced by these defibering industries are dumped near the factory and it often gets contaminated by weed seeds, bird and animal droppings

• Enterprises marketing coirpith collect the coirpith generated in the above process.

• They sun dry the coirpith by spreading on drying yards (the yards are sometimes cemented or sometimes mud plastered)

• During the sun drying process it further gets contaminated by bird droppings animal droppings, soil, sand, weed seeds etc.,

• This operation is highly dependent on weather conditions therefore irregularity in shipment is always possible

• Some entrepreneurs wash the coirpith before drying to remove the phenol and salt. But the quality of the water used for washing is also questionable and the washing process cannot ensure consistent quality in terms of phenol and salt in the end product. The water that comes out after washing has high content of phenol and salt and this water contaminates the soil and under ground water near the washing centers

• Phenol and salt beyond permissible levels in the end product can result in total collapse of the commercial horticultural enterprises where these products are used. Many countries with strict quarantine norms do not permit coirpith contaminated with Salmonella or E-coli (Australia)

• The dried pith is compressed into block. Often the bulk density and weight of these blocks vary causing problems in attaining the expected container loadability and soil recovery when mixed with water at the time of application

• There is no mechanism to ensure the physical, chemical and biological quality of the coirpith marketed by the existing suppliers of coirpith. Any deviation can result in damages for the enterprises using these products

• Strict quality control measures are not adopted; therefore we cannot ensure consistency for the product

As a consequence of the above drawbacks, the known defibering process is facing serious challenges Wherever it is practised.

This invention therefore proposes a process for defibering coconut husk which greatly minimizes the drawbacks set out above.

Coconut husk is taken and crushed in a crusher to ensure maximum exposure of the husk to microbial action without damaging the husk or the pith.

During the crushing process the husk is punched and elongated. By this process the husk becomes soft and the physical integrity is substantially retained.

From the crusher, the husk is taken for soaking and fed into a tank filled with the microbial inoculants Pseudomonas putida, Streptomyces viridosporus Bacillus pumilus, Bacillus licheniformis, Clostridium butricum. The husk remains in the soaking tank for 15 to30 minutes. After the inoculation the husk is heaped in the shade for a period of 20 to 30 days.

While the husk remains in the heap for 30 days the microbes act on the phenol and pectin of the husk and both phenol and pectin is broken down by the enzymes released by the microbes.

The Phenol naturally present in the coir pith has a negative effect on the plants when coir pith is used as a growing media. Therefore by breaking down the phenol, the coir pith becomes free from harmful phenol.

Pectin is the binding material which holds the fiber and pith together in the husk.
When pectin is broken down, separation of fiber and pith becomes very easy. The fiber quality is enhanced because it is free from any coir dust sticking to it which is very important in its further value addition.

When phenol and pectin are broken down the excess salt in the husk also easily leaches away during the process.

After 30 days of microbial activity the husk is fed into a pre-conditioner. The pre-conditioner squeezes the husk and brings the husk to an optimum moisture level.

This optimum moisture level is very important in further processing of the husk namely decortications. The husk becomes more elongated and loses its natural curvature partially.

This also helps the next stage in the process, which is decortications. The first decorticator (decorticator I) is a heavy beating equipment. This will break the husk into smaller pieces.

From the first decorticator, the husk is taken to the second decorticator (decorticator II). This is also a beating machine. This machine ensures complete separation of fiber and pith.

The aforementioned microbial process gives a great advantage at this stage. The enzymatic action by the microbes inoculated will digest the pectin which binds the fiber and pith together. The pectin binding between the fiber and pith is broken and therefore no pith will be found sticking to fiber. This ensures very good quality of fiber which is very important for mechanical spinning.

Another advantage is that we need to apply less force on the husk during the beating process. This will ensure less breakage of coir fiber and pith. By this advantage the commercial value of both fiber and pith is enhanced.

Since we are applying less force on the husk the power consumption is reduced during this operation. The sound and wear and tear of the machines are also reduced greatly.

During decortications the coir fiber and coir pith get separated from each other. But they are still mixed together.

By a screening operation the coir fiber and coir pith are separated.

The high quality coir fiber that is so produced is taken to the mechanical spinning stage.

The coir fibers produced by the process proposed herein is very clean and almost 100% of the fiber is free from any coir pith sticking to' the fiber. If coir pith remains attached to the fiber it is very difficult to spin the fiber using spinning machines. The poor quality coir fiber can be spun only manually by skilled man power.

The fiber will have l/6th phenol and salt compared to the normal untreated fiber. This quality is very important when fiber is used as geo-textiles. The contamination of the soil by the phenol and salt from the geo-textiles will be almost nil by the process proposed herein. The moisture level of the fiber generated by our process is appreciably less compared to the prior art process of the normal process.

In short, the moisture level is the optimum moisture for spinning the fiber into yarn by mechanical spinning process.

The fiber generated is bundled and is ready for use.

We Claim:

1. A process for the defibering of coconut husk comprising the steps of crushing coconut husk in a crusher to ensure maximum exposure of the husk to microbial action without damaging the husk or the pith; soaking the husk in a tank filled with microbial inoculants consisting of l.Pseudomonas putida, 2.Streptomyces viridosporus, 3.Bacillus pumilus, 4.Bacillus licheniformis, S.Clostridium butricum; heaping the husk in the shade for enabling the microbes to act on the phenol and pectin of the husk and break them down by the enzymes released by the microbes, the excess salt in the husk also easily leaching away during the process; feeding the husk into a pre-conditioner for squeezing the husk to an optimum moisture level; decorticating the husk in a first decorticator for breaking the husk into smaller pieces; decorticating the husk in a second decorticator and screening the same for complete separation of fiber and pith.

2. A process as claimed in Claim 1, wherein during crushing, the husk is punched, pulled and straightened thereby loosening the husk, yet substantially retaining its physical integrity.

3. A process as claimed in Claim 1 wherein the husk remains in the tank for 15 to 30 minutes.

4. A process as claimed in any one of the preceding Claims wherein the husk is heaped in the shade for a period of 20 to 30 days.

5. A process for the defibering of coconut husk substantially as herein described with reference to, and as illustrated by, the Example.

6. Coconut husk when defibered by a process as claimed in any one of the preceding Claims.