Sudanese agro-residue as a novel furnish for pulp and paper manufacturing

Abstract

Sudan has rich sources of lignocellulose materials from agricultural waste that have potential to be used as a papermaking furnish following adequate chemical compositions, elemental analysis, fibre dimensions, and morphology of millet stalks and date palm leaves. Paper sheet properties from the various pulps made were investigated, and it was found that there was no difference in the polysaccharide (cellulose and hemicelluloses) content between millet stalks and date palm leaves, although millet stalks had a high lignin content of 18.20% relative to date palm leaves' content of 15.34%. Moreover, millet stalks showed a high pulp yield (42.04%) with a viscosity of 665 mL/g compared to that (34.43%, 551 mL/g) and (38.50% and 534 mL/g) of date palm leaves and the blend, respectively. Papers produced from date palm leaves and millet stalk blends showed better physical properties compared to that of pure millet stalks and date palm leaves. The Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis showed that fibres in the blend were more closely packed than that of the pure millet stalks and date palm leaves fibers. Based on their physical and chemical composition properties, millet stalks and date palm leaves have a high potential as a furnish for pulp and papermaking.