Hydroxypropylcellulose (HPC) is one of cellulose ether that is soluble in water and polar organic solvents. HPC is used a lot in industries such as food, pharmacy, cosmetic, glue, PVC polymer, paper, etc. Beside that this compound is used as a antibiotic component for prevention of disease and medication of Chronic Respiratory Diseases ( CRD) of chicken livestock. At present, HPC is synthesized chemically from plant cellulose. There is not study about the utilization of the other substance like bacterial biocellulose as substance to produce HPC. This investigation has done to produce HPC through etherification reaction by Acetobacter xylinum.
Determination of optimum condition to produce HPC was done with Schult, Moe and Ziaei method. Optimation of etherification biocellulose reaction condition was carried out with NaOH catalyst ratio variations (0,05; 0,075; 0,10; 0,125; 0,15; 0,20 and 0,25 at constant temperature 900C), temperature variations (65, 75, 80, 90 and 1000C at NaOH ratio 0,1; 0,2 and 0,25), and propylene oxide variations (3,3; 3,4; 3,6; 3,8 and 4,0 at constant temperature 900C with NaOH ratio 0,1).
Quantitative analysis was done with the calculation of yield product while qualitative analysis was done with the determination of viscosity and function bunch with the spectrophotometer FTIR. Behind that, water and ash content were analyzed.
The result showed that etherification biocellulose reaction at the temperature of 1000C with NaOH ratio 0,2 and propylene oxide ratio 3,2 produced HPC with high viscosity (297,5 cP); Yield of 123,85 %; Ash content equal to 0,12 % and water content equal to 4,44%.