Pulp Yield Determination of Ethiopian Highland Bamboo (Yushania Alpina) By Soda/Aq Catalytic Pulping
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Date
2021-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The ever growing demand for pulp, paper and paper products in Ethiopia on one hand and the continually increasing price of woody pulp on the other hand necessitates looking for an alternative source of pulp. The country is endowed with a huge potential of naturally growing bamboo and accessible and suitable land for its possible plantation. Bamboo grows rapidly, is easy to spread, and is highly productive and easy and suitable for harvest. Looking for an environmentally friendly pulping technique for appropriate utilization of such resource is essential. This research investigated the pulp yield of Ethiopian highland bamboo (Yushania alpina) using soda-Anthraquinone (AQ) catalytic pulping and characterized the paper made of such pulp. Samples of bamboo have been harvested from Western Ethiopia Jimma area, air and oven dried, milled, and the bamboo chips were cooked (pulped) using autoclave digester with 10%,15%, and 20% alkali charge; at cooking temperatures of 140, 160 and 1800C for 120, 150 and 180 minutes. The optimum operating condition that maximizes the pulp yield and minimizes the kappa number was obtained at active alkali concentration of 15.8%, cooking temperature of 158.6°C and cooking time of 156 minutes to be 50.7% and 13.4 respectively. This optimum condition was used to make laboratory scale paper and its mechanical properties were assessed. The tensile, bursting and tearing indexes were found to be 30.2Nm/g, 1.602kPam2/g and 12.5mNm2/g respectively. These values indicate that quality paper comparable to the one obtained from softwood pulp, with desirable properties can be obtained from Ethiopian highland bamboo with an environmentally friendly pulping procedure of soda – AQ pulping.
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Highland Bamboo, Pulp, Pulping, Pulp Yield, Kappa Number, Soda/AQ