Pulp Production from Agricultural Residues
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Date
2015-07
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Growth in pulp and paper production entails massive felling of trees, which in turn leads to
deforestation. Increasing competition for wood supplies coupled with gradually rising costs of
wood have generated renewed interest in the use of non-wood plant fibers for papermaking in
the highly industrialized countries.
The utilization of agricultural residues for the production of value-added products presents an
innovative opportunity for sustainable resource management, provides additional income for
farmers and contributes to the development of rural economies.
In this study pulping of wheat straw was carried out by conventional soda-antraquinone (AQ)
pulping under different conditions. The influence of soda concentration (10, 12 and 14% on
the basis of dried wheat straw), cooking temperature (155,160 and 1650C) and cooking time
(20, 35 and 50 min) on pulp properties were studied. Results indicated that soda concentration
and cooking time had a significant influence on yield and kappa number.
However the best result with respect to yield and kappa number was obtained with 10% soda
concentration with 20 min cooking time.
Physical tests of hand sheets made from wheat straw soda-AQ pulps were carried out at
Ethiopian Pulp and Paper Factory located at Wonji. At the optimum operating conditions
tensile, tear and burst index were determined to be 67.9 Nm/g, 7.5 mNm2/g and 7.3 kN/g
respectively.
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Keywords
Growth in pulp