Design of enzymatic retting system for kenaf bast fiber using SolidWorks and SuperPro Designer

Kenaf bast and core has been used in variety occasion and for many purposes such as rope, twine, bagging and rugs. It is also a promising source of raw fibre material for pulp and paper and other fibre products. To improve kenaf as intermediate product, retting system need to be developed in order to obtain high quality fibre. In this study, enzymatic retting was introduced to replace the conventional method. The feasibility of enzymatic retting using conventional system and developed system was compared. Enzymatic retting system was designed using SolidWorks software and the production flow for kenaf fiber was developed using SuperPro Designer. It was found that shorter processing time was obtained using enzymatic retting. The designs for retting tank, filtration tank and water heater together with the piping system were developed with the dimension in details. From SuperPro Designer, the production flow was successfully simulated and the yield for fibre that was obtained is 75 kg per batch. The developed system proved that the design and production flow is quite significant to be implemented to kenaf smallholders.