This paper reviews several empirical studies which highlight the using of kenaf for pulp production (beating, fractionation, and recycled fiber). Kenaf is a non-wood pulp source that is alreadly used in parts of the world. Review studies showed that being a dicotyledonous plant, kenaf stem consists of bast and core fibers that are significantly different in chemical and morphological properties. Fiber properties directly influence pulping conditions applied in pulp and papermaking production. Kenaf fibers due to different nature and structure exhibit different behavior during pulping and papermaking. Core pulp due to presence of components with a high surface area coming from pith has low freeness and enhance susceptibility to refining action and pulp rapidly attains freeness value that are quite prohibitive for practical purposes. These short comings restrict the use of core pulp, which probably better used as unrefined. On the contrary, bast pulp refines easily and develops its strength. Due to difference in the quality of bast and core fiber, some researchers have proposed to fiber separation and pulping of each fraction separately and using each pulp lonely or blending refined bast pulp and unrefined core based on final product properties. These review results showed that, there is promised to use of kenaf as whole stem (bast and core together) for technical and economical advantages.
This study sought to determine the suitability of fractionation and consequence-selective processing (separation of long fiber and short fiber, beating long fiber, and remixing with short fiber to target freeness) as a new approach to use of kenaf whole stem pulp for paper and paper-board production. A laboratory Bauer-McNett Classifier with screen 18 mesh was used to separate short fibers and long fibers of the unbeaten kenaf whole stem soda-anthraquinone high kappa and low kappa pulps. For comparison, the initial unbeaten pulps were beaten in the PFI mill to the same freeness (300 mL CSF). Results of our patented method showed that the fractionation process was able to provide a good opportunity to beat the long fiber portion at higher PFI revolutions and to achieve better fibrillation, significantly improving all paper properties of kenaf pulps except for tear index and producing sheets with better drainage and strength properties compared to conventionally beaten pulps, especially in the case of kenaf high kappa pulp.
Malaysian cultivated kenaf has been identified as a suitable raw material for linerboard production. This study examines the soda-antraquinone (soda-AQ) pulp of kenaf fibers versus old corrugated container (OCC) and unbleached softwood kraft pulps as the main sources for linerboard production. The results showed significant differences among the pulp properties. The unbleached kraft pulp with very high freeness required high beating to reach an optimized freeness and produced paper with the highest strength properties, except for tear resistance. The OCC gave paper with the lowest strength properties. In the case of kenaf fractions, bast pulp with high freeness needed less beating than softwood and produced paper with high tear resistance. Core fiber, which had the lowest freeness and highest drainage time, led to paper with high strength but very low tear resistance. Kenaf whole stem pulp showed intermediate properties between core and bast and close to those of unbleached softwood pulp, but with very lower beating requirement. Finally, kenaf whole stem, due to its strength properties, moderate separation cost, and simple pulping process, was judged to be more suitable for commercialization for linerboard production in Malaysia.
The goal of this study was to prepare soda- anthraquinone pulp from kenaf whole stem and to compare the resultant core and bast pulps for linerboard production. Pulping was done under mild cooking conditions (active alkali 12-15%) with a cooking time of 30-90 min and a temperature of 160ºC. During the pulping process, kappa numbers ranged from 56.0 to 20.6, while total yields varied from 58.4 to 54.2% with a rejection rate of 2.3 to 0.1%. Based on the quality of pulp produced, kappa numbers 49.4 and 25.4 was selected as symbolic of high and low pulps respectively. The results of the study revealed significant difference between the properties of core, whole stem (KHK and KLK), and bast pulps. Core pulps with low freeness and high drainage time the study found produced sheets with greater density, tensile index, burst index and RCT, with lower light scattering coefficient and tear index than bast pulp. Whole stem pulps showed properties between those of core and bast pulps. Moreover, KLK with high drainage time produced papers with significantly higher strength properties than KHK.
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