Abaca fibers were subjected to a TEMPO mediated oxidation to extract nanocellulose on a 500 L capacity locally fabricated reactor. A yield of 46.7% white gel material with 2.23% solid content was obtained from an overnight reaction. Transmission electron microscopy scan of the white gel material confirms the production of relatively short highly individualized cellulose nanofibril (CNF) as the diameter of abaca fiber was reduced from 16.28 μm to 3.12 nm with fiber length in the range of 100 nm to 200 nm. Nanocellulose film was prepared using air drying (CNF-VC) and vacuum oven drying (CNF-OD). The effect of CNF concentration on the physical, morphological, thermal and mechanical properties were evaluated. FTIR spectra showed cellulose I spectra between abaca fiber with both the CNF-VC film and CNF-OD film with two distinct peaks at 1620 cm⁻¹ and 1720 cm⁻¹ attributed to the carboxyl group resulting from the TEMPO oxidation. In addition, the carboxyl group decreases in thermal stability of cellulose. Moreover, the XRD scan showed a decrease in crystallinity index of CNF films compared to abaca fibers. CNF-VC film showed the highest tensile strength at 0.4% concentration with 88.30 MPa, while a 89.72 MPa was observed for CNF-OD film at 0.8% concentration.

The Philippines still relies heavily on oil and coal as energy fuel sources, contributing to approximately 63.21% of the energy mix. It is crucial to seek alternative feedstock that can comply with the increasing demand. This study thus investigated the energy potential of bolo ( Gigantochloa levis (Blanco) Merrill) along the bottom, middle and top culm height portions, for bioenergy applications. The top culm was consistently observed to have the lowest moisture contents and the highest relative (0.4757 g/mL) and bulk (0.2003 g/mL) densities. Proximate analysis revealed a significant increase in average fixed carbon (FC) content from top (19.18%) to bottom (20.88%), while ash content showed the opposite trend, ranging from 3.59% to 5.92%. The average volatile matter (VM) content (74.90% - 75.53%) showed no significant variation along the culm. Lignin content was also analyzed and its correlation with FC and VM reveal a parabolic relationship with R ² values of 0.84 and 0.63, respectively. Despite the top section having the lowest higher heating value, its higher density and lower moisture content resulted in the highest calculated energy density (8.13 GJ/m³ in chipped form), suggesting that the top portion has the best potential as a biomass energy source for direct combustion.