CHARACTERIZATION OF PAPERMAKING PULPS FROM RICEHULL

摘要

This paper discusses the potential application of rice hull as an alternative to wood fibers. Although the rice hull has low bulk density and high ash content, the production amount in a year and the price of rice hull lead to many researches for developing the proper utilization ways. The rice hull contains 35%~40% cellulose, 15%~20% hemicelluloses, 20%~25% lignin and 10%~20% silica. We applied the alkaline pulping at 170 °C, to get rice hull fibers.The morphological properties of rice hull fiber showed a round long shape which was typical shape of non-wood fibers. And the average fiber length was 0.45 mm. The handsheet papers which were made of mixture of softwood pulp and rice hull pulp showed the rice hull fibers could be used as a potential substitute of low level packaging grade recycled fibers or wood pulp fiber. The distinct shape of some rice hull fibers for example, saw like shape resulted in the bulkier structure and the higher opacities.