Effect of Valley Beater Refining on Tensile Properties of Molded Pulps from Rice Straws

Abstract

Rice straw, an abundant agricultural waste, is shown to be a promising resource for pulp and paper packaging manufacturing. In this study, rice straw pulps or cellulose fibers were extracted using a soda-AQ process and then the rice straw pulp slurries were refined by a Valley beater. The effect of refining time (15-60 min) on the pulp fiber characteristics was studied. It was found that both initial fiber length and width were decreased with refining time. The refined fibers became fibrillated, finer, and also more uniform in size confirmed by SEM. The pulp freeness (CSF) was reduced with increasing refining time as expected due to higher water-holding capacity of more fibrillated pulps. Then, the molded sheets were formed from the prepared rice straw pulps and examined. From tensile testing, the results indicated that the tensile properties of the molded sheets from the refined pulps were significantly enhanced (p < 0.05), thanks to an increase in fibrillated fiber surface area and inter-fiber bonding degree. The Valley beater refined rice straw pulp provided the molded sheet with the highest tensile index of 51.96 ± 4.08 Nm/g which are comparable to that of the sheets prepared from PFI mill refining process. The tensile properties of the current refined sheets were also in the acceptable range for typical commercial molded pulp packaging. In addition, the freeness values of the optimal Valley beater refined pulps are relatively high (348-423 ml), implying a benefit in forming process and manufacturing of pulp products.