Application of cellulosic nanofibers to replace with imported long- fiber pulps in paper made from bagasse

Abstract

In this research, different additives of cellulose nanofibers, cationic starch and polyacrylamide to bagasse pulp and their impact on the handsheet strengths were investigated aiming to replace with imported long-fiber softwood pulp in Pars paper factory. For this purpose, first 3% bleached bagasse cellulose nanofibers, 3% unbleached nano-lignocellulosic fibers, 0.5, 0.7 and 1% cationic starch, and 0.03, 0.05 and 0.1% cationic polyacrylamide were added separately to bagasse pulp. In the next stage,3% bleached bagasse cellulose nanofibers and 3% unbleached nano-lignocellulosic fibers along with 0.5% cationic starch or 0.05% cationic polyacrylamide were used. The results showed, adding nano-cellulose fibers along with cationic polyacrylamide or starch have increased handsheet strengths significantly. Yet, the best treatment was the addition of 3% nano-lignocellulose along with 0.5% cationic starch which resulted in the higher tensile and burst strengths and lower tear and fold strengths than that of adding 12.5% long fibers to bagasse pulp. So that, comparing with paper made from pure bagasse pulp it showed the increase of 16.57% in tensile index, 8.47% in burst index, 9.77% in tear index, and 168.85% in folding strength.

Keywords

• bagasse
• Cellulose nano-fibers
• Lignocellulose nano-fibers
• Papermaking