Comparison of bamboo and Scandinavian softwood as reinforcement pulp using response surface method | |
| Author | Seto Ambara |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.PP-05-07 |
| Subject(s) | Bamboo-pulp industry Softwood Fibers |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Bamboo is regarded as a major resource that meets the need of common people and also poverty alleviator due to its multi purpose uses (Dhamodaran, Gnanaharan et al., 2003). In China and India, bamboo is also used as major raw material for pulp and paper industry. Some bamboo species may have quite long fibers with strength characteristics close to those of softwood fibers, especially tear strength. They can be used in a wide range of end products. With its advantage in long fiber length and good inter fiber bonding, bamboo should be considered as a candidate to replace long fiber softwood that is much more expensive. In this experiment, Dendrocalamus asper (Thailand) was compared to Scandinavian softwood pulp as reinforcement pulp. Commercial Birch pulp was used as base pulp. Four factors were being investigated: composition of reinforcement pulp, SR of hardwood, SR of reinforcement pulp, and filler content. The parameters are: brightness, opacity, light scattering coefficient, light absorption coefficient, roughness, air permeability, tensile strength, tear strength, formation, and fracture toughness, Response Surface method was used for bamboo-reinforced handsheets and softwood-reinforced handsheets independently. Extreme point and brightness-based optimum-point analysis were used to make the comparison. From the experiment, it was found that paper properties of handsheets with Bamboo and softwood as reinforcement pulp are not only affected by linear relation of composition of hardwood-reinforcement pulp, SR of Birch, SR of reinforcement pulp, and filler content of handsheets, but non linear (quadratic) and interaction effects were also found for some handsheets properties. It was also found that filler content, composition, and refining level of Birch are the dominant factors in Bamboo-reinforced handsheets properties while, in softwood, filler content, refining level of Birch, and refining level of softwood are the dominant factors. Comparison of Bamboo-reinforced handsheets properties with that of softwood shows that when brightness is the requirement, Bamboo-reinforced handsheets properties is inferior to softwood-reinforced properties even for tear strength. |
| Year | 2005 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources (Former title: Department of Food Agriculture, and BioResources (DFAB)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Pulp and Paper Technology (PP) |
| Chairperson(s) | Lehtinen, Esa |
| Examination Committee(s) | Malinen, Raimo ;Nazhad, Mousa M. |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Government of Finland ;AIT Fellowship |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2005 |