Non-Wood Plants As Raw Material for Pulp and Paper
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD SCIENCE IN FINLAND Vol. 10 (2001): Supplement 1. Non-wood plants as raw material for pulp and paper Katri Saijonkari-Pahkala MTT Agrifood Research Finland, Plant Production Research FIN-31600 Jokioinen, Finland, e-mail: [email protected] ACADEMIC DISSERTATION To be presented, with the permission of the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Helsinki, for public criticism at Infokeskus Korona, Auditorium 1, on November 30, 2001, at 12 o’clock. 1 Supervisors: Professor Pirjo Peltonen-Sainio Plant Production Research MTT Agrifood Research Finland Jokioinen, Finland Professor Timo Mela Plant Production Research MTT Agrifood Research Finland Jokioinen, Finland Reviewers: Dr. Staffan Landström Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Umeå, Sweden Professor Bruno Lönnberg Laboratory of Pulping Technology Åbo Akademi University Turku, Finland Opponent: Dr. Iris Lewandowski Department of Science, Technology and Society Utrecht University Utrecht, the Netherlands Custos: Professor Pirjo Mäkelä Department of Applied Biology University of Helsinki Helsinki, Finland AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD SCIENCE IN FINLAND Vol. 10 (2001): Supplement 1. KSP 2001 “A new fiber crop must fit the technical requirements for processing into pulp of acceptable quality in high yield and must also be adaptable to practical agricul- tural methods and economically produce high yield of usable dry matter per acre”. Nieschlag et al. (1960) 3 AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD SCIENCE IN FINLAND Vol. 10 (2001): Supplement 1. Preface The present study was carried out at the MTT Agrifood Research Finland between 1990 and 2000. I wish to extend my gratitude to the Directors of the Crop Science Department, Professor Emeritus Timo Mela and his successor Professor Pirjo Peltonen-Sainio for offering me the financial and insti- tutional framework in which to do this research. The encouragement and friendly support of Profes- sor Pirjo Peltonen-Sainio made it possible to complete this thesis. I also wish to thank Professor Pirjo Mäkelä, for her contribution during the last stages of the work. I am also grateful to Professor Eija Pehu, the former teacher of my subject at the University of Helsinki for her suggestion to work for this thesis. I wish to thank Professor Bruno Lönnberg of Åbo Akademi University and Dr. Staffan Landström of the Swedish Agricultural University, for their valuable advice and constructive criticism. I am grateful to the staff of the Crop Science Department of MTT for the excellent technical assistance in the numerous field experiments and botanical analyses. I also wish to thank the staff of MTT research stations in Laukaa, Ylistaro, Tohmajärvi, Ruukki, Sotkamo and Rovaniemi and the Kotkaniemi Research Station of Kemira Agro for the skilful field work and data collection during the study. Staff of the Chemistry Laboratory of MTT and the Finnish Pulp and Paper Research Insti- tute (KCL) analysed the material obtained from the experiments and whose work I greatly appreci- ate. Special thanks are due to biometrician Lauri Jauhiainen, M.Sc., for statistical consultation and to Mr. Eero Miettinen, M.Sc., for helping in processing the yield data from the variety trials. The English manuscript was revised by Dr. Jonathan Robinson to whom I express my apprecia- tion for his work. I would also like to thank the Editorial Board of the Agricultural and Food Science in Finland for accepting this study for publication in their journal. The members of MTT biomass and reed canary grass group, Anneli Partala, M.Sc., Mia Sah- ramaa, M.Sc., Antti Suokannas, M.Sc. and Mr. Mika Isolahti have provided support during the course of this work. My colleagues Dr. Kaija Hakala and Dr. Hannele Sankari have given good advice on avoiding stress in completing this work. I extend my warm thanks to all of them. Financial support was provided by the Foundation of Technology and is gratefully acknowledged. Finally, my warmest thanks are due to my dear and patient family and my parents Mirjam and Arvo Saijonkari. Jokioinen, October 2001 Katri Saijonkari-Pahkala 5 AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD SCIENCE IN FINLAND Saijonkari-Pahkala, K. Non-wood plants as raw material for pulp and paper Contents List of abbreviations ................................................................................................. 8 Glossary of technical terms...................................................................................... 8 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 11 2 Review of relevant literature on papermaking from field crops..................... 12 2.1 Global production of non-wood pulp and paper ...................................... 12 2.2 Candidate non-wood plant species for papermaking ............................... 14 2.3 Properties of non-wood plants as raw material for paper ....................... 15 2.3.1 Fibre morphology in non-wood plants used in papermaking ........ 15 2.3.2 Chemical composition ....................................................................... 18 2.4 Possibilities for improving biomass yield and quality by crop management ................................................................................................. 24 2.4.1 Timing of harvest ............................................................................... 24 2.4.2 Plant nutrition .................................................................................... 25 2.4.3 Choice of cultivar .............................................................................. 26 2.5 Pulping of field crops ................................................................................. 26 2.5.1 Pretreatment of the raw material ...................................................... 27 2.5.2 Commercial and potential methods for pulping non-woody plants ................................................................................................... 27 3 Objectives and strategy of the study ................................................................. 29 4 Materials and methods ........................................................................................ 33 4.1 Establishment and management of field experiments ............................. 33 4.2 Sampling ...................................................................................................... 33 4.3 Measuring chemical composition of the plant material .......................... 33 4.4 Pulp and paper technical measurements ................................................... 34 4.5 Methods used in individual experiments .................................................. 34 4.5.1 Selection of plant species.................................................................. 34 4.5.2 Crop management research ............................................................... 35 4.5.3 Reed canary grass variety trials........................................................ 37 4.6 Statistical methods ...................................................................................... 39 4.7 Climate data ................................................................................................. 40 5 Results .................................................................................................................. 40 5.1 Selecting plant species ............................................................................... 40 5.2 Effect of crop management on raw material for non-wood pulp............ 41 5.2.1 Harvest timing, row spacing and fertilizer use ............................... 41 5.2.1.1 Reed canary grass ................................................................ 41 5.2.1.2 Tall fescue............................................................................. 50 5.2.2 Age of reed canary grass ley ............................................................ 58 6 AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD SCIENCE IN FINLAND Vol. 10 (2001): Supplement 1. 5.2.3 Sowing time of reed canary grass .................................................... 62 5.2.4 Timing and stubble height of delayed harvested reed canary grass ........................................................................................ 65 5.3 Research on reed canary grass varieties ................................................... 69 5.3.1 Commercial cultivars of reed canary grass at delayed harvesting 69 5.3.2 Mineral and fibre content of plant parts in reed canary grass cultivars .................................................................................... 73 6 Discussion ............................................................................................................ 77 6.1 Strategy used for selecting species for non-wood pulping ..................... 78 6.2 The preconditions for production of acceptable raw material for non-wood pulping ................................................................................. 78 6.2.1 Possibilities to enhance yielding ability .......................................... 78 6.2.2 Development of crop management practices targeting high quality 81 6.2.3 Possibilities for reducing production costs ..................................... 84 6.2.4 Requirements and possibilities for domestic seed production ...... 84 6.2.5 Enhanced adaptability of reed canary grass to Finnish growing conditions ........................................................................................... 84 6.3 Feasibility of non-wood pulping ............................................................... 85