The Hindu Business Line : Jute likely to replace wood for pulp — IJSG pilot project after harvest in June

FINALLY, there is some good news for the die-hard ecologists. Threats from the international paper industry on the world timber population may soon wane as jute is likely to replace wood pulp for paper production.

The Dhaka-based International Jute Study Group (IJSG), which was earlier known as the International Jute Organisation (IJO), has been successful in developing jute pulp in different laboratories all over the world. The jute pulp has almost all the features of wood pulp.

According to the IJSG Secretary-General, Mr T. Nandakumar, pilot trials in chemical and mechanical jute pulping are being planned once the fresh jute is harvested during June.

The project was initiated by the IJO way back in January 2001, but the organisation faced severe difficulties. Thereafter, it was restructured to create the IJSG.

Various organisations based all over the world are engaged in this project. Among these two are from Bangladesh, namely Bangladesh Jute Research Institute (BJRI) and Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC).

The Agro-Technological Research Institute (ATO) of the Netherlands, Centre Technique du Papier (CTP) of France, Institute of Bast Fibre Crops (IBFC) and Yuanjiang Mills of China and the Central Pulp and Paper Research Institute (CPPRI) of India are the other participatory bodies.

``The project has already optimised the condition of pulping in both chemical and mechanical pulping. Bleaching of jute pulp was carried out in these institutes. Against the targeted brightness, about 80-81 per cent was obtained using various sequences of bleaching,'' Mr Nandakumar replied to an e-mail questionnaire from Business Line.

The project has introduced biotechnological measures to reduce ``alkali charge to nine per cent'' and ``cooking time in the kraft process to 50 per cent''. He further elaborated the technical aspects.

``In the mechanical process, energy requirement was reduced by 30 per cent. It was possible to reduce chemical requirement in various sequences by 20 and 40 per cent using enzyme and oxygen respectively'', he wrote.

Apart from several private sector mills, pilot projects would be run in the CPPRI (India), the IBFC (China), the CTP (France), the ATO (The Netherlands) and the BCIC (Bangladesh).

It may be noted that the international paper industry is threatened by the dwindling forest cover of the earth.

Mr Nandakumar felt that availability of wood for pulp and paper would reduce drastically over the years.

``At the same time, the demand for paper would grow constantly on a global basis. Successful commercialisation of the proposed jute pulp technology would open up new vistas both for the jute and paper industry,'' he added.

Attempts at using jute pulp for producing paper are not new. Though it was proved that jute could replace wood pulp, the whole process was not cost effective. A number of global companies successfully developed the technology and used jute pulp for producing speciality grade papers for cigarette tissues, carbonising tissues and laminating grades. However, the cost factor made the processes unviable.

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Jute likely to replace wood for pulp — IJSG pilot project after harvest in June