The characteristics of thorny bamboo (Bambusa blumeana) for dissolving pulp

Abstract

This study was aimed to examine the raw material characteristics of thorny bamboo (Bambusa blumeana) from two different origins. Thorny bamboo is one of the raw material for dissolving pulp (rayon pulp). The origins of the bamboos were Agam Regency (West Sumatra Province) (TB1) and Perawang City of Siak Regency (Riau Province) (TB2) that represented highland and lowland, respectively. Bamboos from the two origins were analyzed for their raw material characteristics consisted of growth, chemical contents, fiber dimension and dissolving pulp. The pulping process was carried out in steps as followed: prehydrolyzed, kraft pulping and pulp bleaching. The pre-hydrolysis techniques used acetic acid solution. The kraft condition was active alkali 25% and sulfidity 32%. Meanwhile, the bleaching was conducted in 4 stages. The analysis was done descriptively. Dissolving pulp requires high purity level of alpha-cellulose that would be attained by dissolving other components from the system. The results showed alpha-cellulose of thorny bamboo from Agam (TB1) and Perawang (TB2) were 51.28% and 36.90%, respectively. However, the fiber of TB2 was longer than that of TB1 that 3.22 and 2.62 mm, respectively. The yields pulp kraft of thorny bamboo TB1 and TB2 were 35.25% and 36.28%, respectively. The alpha-cellulose of the thorny bamboo met the standard for dissolving pulp but not the mineral and acid insoluble ash content.