Harnessing cow manure waste for nanocellulose extraction and sustainable small-structure manufacturing

Dai, Yanqi; Sun, Dongyang; O'Rourke, Dominic; Velusamy, Sasireka; Sundaram, Senthilarasu; Edirisinghe, Mohan

Abstract

The use of sustainable materials as alternatives to fossil-derived materials is vital to tackle the current environmental challenges. Cellulose is a good candidate due to its intrinsic properties. It is wise to consider cellulose rich-waste materials as its sources, rather than high-grade resources, integrating with the concept of a circular economy. In this study, we successfully produced type I cellulose nanofibrils with an average diameter of 12.8 ± 4.1 nm, from cow manure collected from a local dairy farm, leveraging this sustainable cellulose source to upscale agricultural waste into high-performance biopolymers. This new route offers a practical solution to provide an abundant source of cellulose feedstock while mitigating the environmental concerns of farm animal waste. Following this, the extracted cellulose was used for manufacturing small-structure cellulose products through an innovative method, namely nozzle-pressurized spinning. This is distinguished by its simplicity, high efficiency, and low-energy consumption for straightforward forming. The morphological diversity of these cellulose products further expands their application fields, such as textile, food additives, packaging, electronics, and healthcare.

Citation

Dai, Y., Sun, D., O'Rourke, D., Velusamy, S., Sundaram, S., & Edirisinghe, M. (2025). Harnessing cow manure waste for nanocellulose extraction and sustainable small-structure manufacturing. Journal of Cleaner Production, 509, Article 145530. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2025.145530

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 13, 2025
• Online Publication Date: Apr 15, 2025
• Publication Date: 2025-06
• Deposit Date: May 22, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: May 22, 2025
• Journal: Journal of Cleaner Production
• Print ISSN: 0959-6526
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 509
• Article Number: 145530
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2025.145530
• Keywords: Natural resource, Biopolymer, Nanofibril, Spinning, Waste recycling