The renewed public interest of agricultural fibre-based paper is continuing in North America. There are substantial technical and market challenges to overcome in the commercial realization of a mass-use, agri-pulp (TM) paper project in the Western economy. Successful usage of straw for paper manufacture presents challenges: to reduce destruction of the natural forest, to help create an alternative model for the maintenance of rural economy and to test novel manufacturing technologies which do not pollute. Using classical wood-based pulping technology does not fit into the economic context of a modest-scale farming community based project. Arbokem Inc. initiated its own agri-pulp mill project in 1989 with the goal of establishing an agri-pulp mill which has zero-effluent discharge. The demonstration-scale agri-pulp mill located in Vulcan, Alberta, Canada was designed and constructed by Arbokem in 1993/94. It was started up in mid-1994. There were major successes and setbacks in the project realization path. Various grades of mass-use printing papers containing different types of agri-pulp and wastepaper were produced and test-printed. In particular, agri-pulp paper for offset printing, photocopying and inkjet printing has been made and sold in North America since 1996.
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