Recycling of chemical pulp from wheat straw and corn stover

Ulrike Tschirner, James Barsness, Tamara Keeler

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

Handsheets produced from corn stalks and wheat straw soda AQ pulps were recycled in the lab. Pulping of corn stalks resulted in a low pulp yield, low bonding strength, and low recyclability. Conversely, wheat straw fiber had a better yield, very good tensile properties, and showed a considerably better response to recycling. The tensile index of wheat straw fibers retained 67% of its original value after four cycles. It could be shown that recycling caused only small changes in chemical composition, but that the crystallinity index increased considerably. To be able to understand the behavior of wheat straw fiber as part of a commercial papermaking furnish, a paper containing 20% wheat straw fiber was produced on a 24 inch pilot paper machine and was recycled using a handsheet mold with white water return. Chemical analysis of the control (no wheat fiber) and the wheat-containing paper demonstrated slightly higher xylan content for the wheat-containing material. Recyclability increased slightly with addition of wheat fibers to a commercial furnish.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)536-543
Number of pages8
JournalBioResources
Volume2
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2007

Keywords

  • Chemical composition
  • Corn
  • Crystallinity index
  • Recycling strength loss
  • Wheat

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