BAMBOO PULP

Bamboos are a group of woody perennial evergreen plants in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Some of its members are giants, forming by far the largest members of the grass family. Younger tips of some of the larger species can grow over 1 meter per day.Bamboo pulp means moist, slightly cohering mass, consisting of soft, undissolved animal or vegetable matter.Pulp made from wood, used especially to make paper. Bamboo is botanically classified as a grass and for pulping purposes it is regarded as an annual plant. Bamboo pulp is very similar to softwood in terms of fiber length and strength. However, pulping conditions are also very similar to eucalyptus. Hence, bamboo can be pulped together with hardwood. Mixed cooking provides stronger pulp than hardwood pulped separately and later mixed with bamboo. Bamboo can also be cooked with acacia. Bamboo can be formed into a suitable pulp if prior to digestion it undergoes a process of shredding, washing and wet depithing.The fibres are then chemically digested preferably by a process which uses rapid pressure drops to open the fibres using the energy contained in the wet superheated fibres. Plant cell walls are composed of cellulose which is the main material used to make paper. Wood contains high levels of these papermaking fibres and is the main pulp source utilized in North America. The structure and shape of the cellulose wood fibre varies from species to species and even within an individual tree. Chemical pulping turns the wood pulp brown in colour. Although this is fine for such packaging as cardboard and some paper bags, whiteness is an important characteristic in papers used for printing or high quality packaging. Bleaching is used to whiten and purify the pulp fibres. How much bleaching is required depends on the end product that will be manufactured from the pulp. Bleaching, however, weakens the wood fibre. Different paper products have different requirements for the balance between strength and whiteness. To meet this range of needs, mills produce a variety of pulps such as fully bleached, semi-bleached and unbleached. The international commodity market for paper pulp is well established, and the supply side is dominated by a few very large multinational companies. Prices in the domestic market in Australia essentially track the cycles in world price. Indicative costs of bleached pulp are $700-$1,000/t. The economic success of a pulping plant hinges on its ability to commercially produce pulp when prices are at the bottom of the cycle. Pulp and paper industry is a very conspicuous industry of modern times. Paper form a commodity of prime in partance to day from the parts of view of mass communication, education, and industrial and economic growth. Agricultural residues, such as bagasse, rice husk, wheat husk jute sticks, grasses, etc are fast becoming popular materials for paper making. considerable attention is being given to the utilization of various agricultural by products for preparing pulp for paper manufacture lendable efforts are being make in this direction. Paper production requires a disintegration of the bulky fibraes material to individual or small agglomerate fibres. This is called pulping. The ideal fibre for high grade paper should be long, high in cellulose content and low in ligrin content. Most ideal raw materila for paper products is bamboo. Other sources are bagasse and hardwoods like jute stick must be developed and good quality paper pulp make by blending with bamboo fibre.