Agri-pulp is Fine Furnish

by Al Wong

Agri-pulp is papermaking pulp made from plant fibers. It is either grown on purpose or recovered as crop residue. A limited amount of agri-pulp newsprint is presently made in countries such as India, Mexico and Cuba. There are several reasons why agri-pulp newsprint should also be considered for production in North America:

Fiber Availability -Agricultural crop residue is the largest single uncommitted fiber supply in North America. ACR is renewable in real time, while the fastest renewal time for commercial pulpwood is seven years. About 200 million tons of surplus ACR raw material is presently available. The potential amount of papermaking pulp is 100 million to 120 million tons.
Forest Ecology -During the past 10 years, the growing demand for wood-based products has put considerable pressure on natural forests. Public concern about preserving natural forests for ecological and recreational purposes has grown. It is questionable whether we can continue harvesting natural forests at the present rate.
Agri-pulp could be used as an alternative to either softwood kraft reinforcement fiber or mechanical pulp in the newsprint sheet. Substituting agri-pulp for mechanical pulp would have the greatest impact on wood usage.
Product Economics - A relatively stable price for straw of $35 per ton should be very attractive to manufacturers of pulp and paper products. In contrast, the current price of softwood chips in Quebec is about $120 per ton. And because forecasts call for a long-term, softwood-fiber shortage of several million tons per year, the price of wood chips will continue to rise.
Social Aspects - Spending on American agricultural subsidies amounts to more than $10 billion annually. At a price of $35 per ton of straw, 200 million tons of agri-pulp production represents an economic value of more than $7 billion annually. If an agri-pulp industry were to develop, direct agricultural subsidies to grain farmers could be phased down rapidly.
There are two ways to provide fibrous raw material for agri-pulp production---on-purpose fiber crops and crop residues.
On-purpose fiber crops require intentional land allocation, taking land away from food production.
Kenaf is an annual fiber crop that provides both long and short papermaking fibers. A yield of five to 10 tons of whole stalk per hectare per year can be achieved with optimal inputs of water, herbicides, pesticides and fertilizer. Kenaf requires a significant amount of water, especially during the early growth stage.
The price of kenaf stem is projected to be $70 per ton. In the southeast United States where kenaf is grown, this price may not be competitive with sawmill chips, which are $60 per ton.
Crop residues can also be used. Available choices include cereal straw, corn stalks, grass-seed straw and oilseed straw. The cost of such plant fiber has already been "pre-paid" by the production of grain and oilseeds. Existing farm machinery can be used. No new herbicides, pesticides or fertilizers are needed.
With enormous on-the-ground fiber resources, there is no need to expand the present agricultural land base. Much of this agricultural residue is underutilized. Depending on location, straw is presently disposed of as animal bedding, by plowing back into the soil and by burning.

Arbokem Inc. is planning to produce 10 to 20 tons of experimental agri-pulp newsprint in the coming six months. We are presently seeking interested newspaper publishers to test it.

The purpose of this trial is to establish papermaking feasibility, process economics and printing performance. Positive test results would certainly accelerate the development of competitively-priced agri-pulp newsprint mills in North America.

Al Wong is president of Arbokem Inc., Vancouver, British Columbia. Phone is (604) 322-1317; fax, (604) 322-5865.