The Optimal Material to Make Paper: Kenaf
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 08.21.06
Tree pulp is not an optimal material for paper making. An elaborate series of steps is necessary to mechanically and chemically break down the rigid source material into usable pulp, and further processes are needed to render it white and smooth enough for printing. Non-tree sources such as kenaf, hemp and recycled rags are optimal materials for making paper. Kenaf in particular was identified by the USDA as being the most viable plant to replace trees in paper making. The kenaf plant is an annual hibiscus related to cotton.
Kenaf's 240 varieties have been researched by the USDA for over 40 years. Kenaf contains approximately 25 percent less lignin than wood fiber, which translates into lower chemical and energy requirements in the pulping process. Kenaf reaches 12-18 feet in 150 days, while southern pine (a species commonly grown on tree plantations) must grow 14 to 17 years before it can be harvested. Kenaf also yields more fiber per acre than southern pine producing 5-10 tons of dry fiber per acre, or approximately 3 to 5 times as much as southern pine.
Hemp produces 3 to 6 tons of usable fiber per year, which makes it many times better than wood but not as good as kenaf for paper. Both hemp and kenaf are hardy plants requiring minimal water, fertilizer or pesticides.
Compared with wood-pulp paper used for printing newspapers, tests have shown kenaf paper as stronger, whiter, less yellowing, capable of sharper photo reproduction, and more user-friendly due to better ink adherence (thus requiring less ink and resulting in less ink ruboff on readers' hands). Mixing kenaf pulp with recycled newspapers improves the quality of the recycled paper.
Kenaf was also recently used to create the world's thinnest paper in Japan.
The only company in the U.S. that produces kenaf paper is Vision Paper in New Mexico. You can read more about the man behind Vision Paper here.
You can buy kenaf seeds from The Seedman.
so how soon do Isee this at the Kinkos I work at?
These are the stories I like to read on TreeHugger. I had no idea that such a raw material existed. How awesome. I think I'll plant some in the garden next year and see what I can process.
if it's so great, why don't more people make paper out of it?
Probably Diana, because it is a cheaper to cut down old-growth forests at a disastrous ecological cost than it is to grow plants to harvest. Just a thought.
Rabbits love this stuff, too. I've read that it is a complete protein source for them. In other words, it could be used as a substitute for rabbit chow, which is the primary non-organic input in our backyard rabbit farm.
But with that growth rate, I would be careful with it ... it sounds a lot like kudzu, and anyone who has visited the Southern USA has seen the destruction that kudzu produces (if you want to talk about destroying forests).
Thad, the Vision Paper link points out that Kenaf is an African plant that requires about 60-90 days more mild weather for the seeds to mature than the US offers. Hence the larger problem is finding a reliable way to get seeds each year.
Thad, I wouldn't be too worried about Kenaf taking over like Kudzu. Kudza is a vine. Kenaf has to go to seed before it can spread. It can be a lot more easily controlled than Kudzu.
I would say the best thing about Kenaf is that it can be bleached with Hydrogen Peroxide which breaks down into water in the process. This is much better for the environment than the more harsh chemicals used in bleaching wood pulp paper.
I was going to jump on the kenaf bandwagon and talk my co-workers into using it instead of our recycled stock...but then I got to thinking.
In northern Wisconsin, where I spend a good deal of time, the timber industry is a major economic player. Not only that, but each county has its own forests which are harvested to generate revenue. Lumber and paper mills are leading employers. Recently the state govt provided a loan to a group of investors to purchase a mill from a company that had shut it down, putting 300 people out of work, to re-open it with some creative energy efficiency mechanisms.
If it weren't for the timber industry, the only other viable source of income for forest owners would be to sell off their land in small lots for vacation homes, resorts, other tourist attractions. From an ecological perspective, that's a disaster: Fragmented and destroyed habitat for countless plants and animals, increased runoff into lakes and streams from deforested areas, reduced tree cover to sequester carbon, increased water temps degrading aquatic habitats.
So while on a macro scale, creating paper from timber is inefficient, polluting, and generates monoculture forests, on the micro (or medium?) scale, keeping paper mills alive so that forests are kept alive seems to have some merit. There are several state programs to encourage and facilitate groups of landowners to manage and sustainably harvest their forests as a single unit, for economies of scale, but also so that forest management can be accomplished on a landscape scale, rather than parcel by parcel.
For now, I'll stick with recycled paper stock, and seek out chlorine free for times when recycled is not feasible.
REgarding the Northern WI timber industry - indeed, balancing economy with environment is a task we should not forget. However, perhaps those forests could move their focus to providing quality lumber instead of paper? Then we can have our Kenaf and eat it to...
Optimal? I think not. Kenaf is just an interim excuse til we can get hemp legal in this country!
I find this website very meaningful bcos its helping us to understand more about what kenaf can do so much wonders