RESUMEN
Kenaf has a high content of gum that is difficult to remove. Traditional chemical degumming process causes serious environmental pollution. To solve the problem, we developed a new method to degum kenaf. We pretreated the kenaf with steam explosion followed by ultrasonic treatment. We chose the single factor tests to select the ultrasonic frequency, sodium hydroxide concentration and processing time. Combined with orthogonal tests, we found that the optimum conditions were as follows: ultrasonic frequency was 28 kHz, sodium hydroxide concentration was 2%, and processing time was 60 min. Under these conditions, the residual gum of kenaf fiber was 9.72% and the fineness was 139.45 N(m). Steam explosion combined with ultrasonic method is effective in degumming of kenaf.