LAUSR

Grasses have emerged as potential alternative raw materials which can replace wood for pulp and paper products. Various species of grasses have been explored previously for pulp and paper production. This study is aimed to investigate pulp and papermaking characteristics of a grass species namely Cymbopogon winterianus Jowitt which is commonly known as citronella grass. This grass was subjected to proximate chemical characterisation; fibre morphology analysis; soda, soda-AQ (soda-anthraquinone), and kraft pulping; elemental chlorine free bleaching using D0EPD1 (D = ClO2 in acidic medium; EP = alkaline extraction with addition of H2O2; 0 and 1 = initial and final stage) sequence; and evaluation of physical strength properties of paper hand sheets. The pulp and paper hand sheets were also examined through SEM (scanning electron microscope) and FTIR (Fourier-transform infrared) spectroscopy to observe the structural and functional group variations. The proximate chemical analysis of citronella grass was found superior in terms of α-cellulose (38.10%), pentosans (22.30%) and alkali solubility (28.20%) while inferior in terms of ash (8.20%), lignin (25.10%) and alcohol benzene solubility (6.31%) with respect to some other grass species used for pulp and papermaking. Fibre length (0.69–0.74 mm) and fibre width (13.8–15.1 μm) were also comparable to other grass species. Brown pulp characteristics such as screened yield (44.67%), brightness (~24 %ISO) and kappa number (~20) revealed superiority of soda-AQ pulping among all the pulping processes while the kraft pulp exhibited the highest brightness (83.05 %ISO) and intrinsic viscosity (17.6 cP) after D0EPD1 bleaching. Tear index, tensile index and burst index of paper hand sheets obtained from bleaching of soda-AQ and kraft pulps were almost similar but higher to that of bleached soda pulp. The citronella grass was found suitable for producing writing and printing grade paper based on processes and optimised parameters described in this study.