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Toward industrial applications of bast fibre pulps: their potential as a nonwood source is discussed

Pulp & paper Canada, 1999-09, Vol.100 (9), p.19

Copyright Southam Business Communications, Inc. Sep 1999 ;ISSN: 0316-4004 ;EISSN: 1923-3515

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  • Title:
    Toward industrial applications of bast fibre pulps: their potential as a nonwood source is discussed
  • Author: Zhang, Y ; Snijder, M H ; Van Roekel, GJ ; De Jong, E
  • Subjects: Flax ; Hemp ; Pulp & paper industry ; R&D ; Research & development
  • Is Part Of: Pulp & paper Canada, 1999-09, Vol.100 (9), p.19
  • Description: Due to the long fibre length and high content of cellulose in hemp and flax bast fibres, Table I, these long vegetable fibres serve as excellent candidates for replacing synthetic fibres in non-wovens. The key issues in using vegetable bast fibres are good fibre length control and high degree of fibre separation. A selective chemimechanical process has been developed at ATO-DLO to achieve these targets. With this process, cotton-like, fluffy flax fibres have been produced. Observations by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) methods, Fig. 2, have revealed excellent fibre separation from fibre bundles to elementary fibres. These fibres showed good nonwoven sheet formation and sheet properties comparable to those made with synthetic fibres. Patent application is now pending for this novel fibre-opening process. Both mechanical pulps have a higher SR value (lower freeness), which means that the dewatering rate will be lower than with the NBSK pulp. This indicates that paper machines most likely must be tuned to accommodate bast fibre APXP pulps. For example, the apparent density of the handsheets is lower for the APXP pulps than for the NBSK pulp, indicating a slightly bulkier sheet at the same paper weight. In particular, the tensile strength is much lower than that of the NBSK pulp. This can be attributed to less bonding ability, and to the fact that the fibres are stiffer and have therefore less contact area (f.6). The brightness of the APXP pulps is still slightly lower than the NBSK pulp. However, brightnesses over 85 ISO have been reached in our laboratory with other TCF bleaching sequences. The results strongly indicate that the produced bast fibre-pulps can replace softwood APMP pulps, so many applications using such pulps can also be served with APXP bast fibre pulps. The lignin content of hemp and flax bast fibre, Table I, is low enough to mark the resulting bleached APXP pulps as woodfree, therefore allowing these pulps to be used in woodfree paper production. Future research in the pulping and bleaching process should be directed to improved dewatering combined with higher tensile strength to make these pulps really compatible with softwood kraft pulps. Abstract: The characteristics of bast fibres from flax and hemp are discussed in the context of novel applications in nonwovens and composites and as raw materials for bulk paper production. Elementary flax fibres have been produced by a novel chemimechanical process developed at ATO-DLO. We have shown on a laboratory scale that these flax fibres can replace synthetic polypropylene and polyester fibres in wet-laid nonwovens. The obtained sheets showed good web formation and acceptable sheet characteristics. Composites of different polypropylene/flax mixtures resulted in good mechanical properties. Delignification and extraction of the fibre or the addition of a coupling agent improved fibre/matrix compatibility and increased the composite strength considerably. Remarkably, flax and hemp fibres which were compounded at temperatures up to 260 [Symbol Not Transcribed]C preserved the fibre-reinforcing activity. Peroxide bleached mechanical pulps from hemp bast fibres produced with an APXP extrusion pulping method can compete with a variety of wood pulps.
  • Publisher: Westmount: Annex Publishing & Printing, Inc
  • Language: English
  • Identifier: ISSN: 0316-4004
    EISSN: 1923-3515
  • Source: ProQuest Central
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