A research study submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering, School of Environment, Resources and Development

Research Studies Project Report (M. Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2001

Non-wood is used as raw material for pulp and paper industry in Asian countries, where densely populated developing countries very often do not have much supply of wood. Ecological arguments and an increasing demand for paper products in areas where proper wood is in short supply is a major incentive for non-wood fiber demand. It is reasonable to think that new technologies might improve the position of non-wood fiber raw materials. Bamboo is the main paper raw material for pulp and paper industry of Vietnam. Almost 30% of papermaking raw material in Vietnam is recycled fiber. Bamboo is recycled too. Although there is many data on recycling of wood pulp, there is no reported data on influence of recycling on non-wood pulp. This work had been undertaken to address this issue. Different combination of bamboo either different species of bamboo or mixture of bamboo with hardwood was used as starting point for this project (named: bamboo, mixed bamboo, bamboo + hardwood and mixed bamboo + hardwood). The fines and shive of the pulp were removed before recycling, and then all samples were recycled for three times. The strength and optical properties were measured and compared with those of softwood pulp. Softwood pulp was used as a control. It was observed that the general recycling trend for the bamboo pulps are similar to the softwood with slight difference in the rate of reduction in papermaking properties. The details of these changes have been reported in the text.