Non-wood fibres in papermaking: Literature review

In a longer time perspective the justification of using non-wood fibres as industrial raw material within the European Union can be the lack of wood fibres for paper industry or the need for replacing synthetic fibres in composites. In countries with a surplus in food production and arable land, the need for stopping rapid urbanisation and unemployment in rural areas dominates. In particular it is important to pay attention to the strong opinion against afforestation on agricultural land due to difficulties to later return these areas for food production should this be needed. The production of pulp for paper from non-wood resources is of well-known practice with long traditions. Today non-wood fibres account for about 8 % of the worlds total paper and pulp production. The majority of this production is located in China and India, but there are signs that the interest in non-wood pulping is growing presently also in North America and within the European Community A short introduction to the current use of non-wood fibre resources for paper pulp production in the world is given. A literature review of the most common plants used as fibre resource is given together with their individual characteristics from the point of view of their use as industrial raw materials. From the technical point of view, annual plants offer a great variety of fibre qualities, that properly exploited can be used in the development of new paper qualities. Based on the available literature, technical pulping alternatives are described. Finally, the effect of the different annual plants used as raw material on the paper qualities is discussed briefly. In general, it can be said that annual plants offer an as yet under-utilised potential fibre resource for paper production, not only for bulk production but also in terms of versatility needed for new product development within the paper industry.