CELLULOSE CHEMISTRY AND TECHNOLOGY PULP AND PAPERMAKING PROPERTIES OF BAMBOO SPECIES MELOCANNA BACCIFERA SANDEEP KUMAR TRIPATHI, OM PRAKASH MISHRA, NISHI KANT BHARDWAJ and RAGHAVAN VARADHAN Avantha Centre for Industrial Research and Development, BILT Paper Mill Campus, Yamuna Nagar, Haryana, India ✉Corresponding author: S. Kumar Tripathi,
[email protected] Received August, 17, 2016 Pulp and paper making properties of bamboo species Melocanna baccifera were studied with a focus on the physical properties and chemical composition of bamboo chips, on pulping behavior, bleaching response, fiber morphology, refining behavior and strength properties of the bleached pulp. Melocanna baccifera species was found to have 52.8% cellulose, 21.1% hemicelluloses and 25.2% lignin, i.e. similar to hardwood. The produced pulp could be bleached to 89 ± 1% ISO brightness. The bleached pulp refined to 25 °SR had 54.6 Nm/g tensile index, 10.7 mN.m 2/g tear index, 4.95 kN.m 2/g burst index and 328 double folds. Also, the bleached pulp had an average fiber length of 1.68 mm, which is higher than that of hardwood pulp (0.88-1.1 mm), but lower than that of softwood pulp (2.2-3.5 mm). Meanwhile, the pulp had an average fiber width of 17.1 µm, which is similar to that of hardwood fiber (16-20 µm), but lower than that of softwood fiber (28-35 µm). Keywords : bamboo, bleaching, extractives, papermaking properties, pulping INTRODUCTION dimensions has been reported among the species, Bamboo is one of the most versatile plants in but no significant differences in the chemical the world.