Utilization of sarkanda for making pulp and paper using elemental chlorine free and total chlorine free bleaching processes

A lignocellulosic non-wood material sarkanda available in abundance as waste, was evaluated for chemical constituents, pulping behavior, morphological properties, bleaching behavior and paper handsheet strength properties. Present study reveals that sarkanda contains cellulose 36.2 +/- 0.5 %, hemicelluloses 35.2 +/- 0.41 %, lignin 21.2 +/- 0.22 % and ash 8.2 +/- 0.3 %. Soda-anthraquinone pulping of sarkanda using 15 % active alkali resulted in unbleached pulp with 14.7 kappa number, 16.0 cP viscosity and 54.6 % pulp yield. With use of elemental chlorine free bleaching sequence, OD0EOPD, final bleached pulp achieved 85.7 % ISO brightness, whereas, using total chlorine free bleaching sequence, OZ(EOP)P(O)P(O), the brightness obtained was 81.9 % ISO. Elemental chlorine free bleached sarkanda pulp had tensile index of 39.4 N m/g, burst index of 3.4 kN/g and tear index of 5.7 mNm(2)/g. The study exhibits that sarkanda has potential to be utilized for papermaking. Such approach of using non-wood raw material with elemental chlorine free bleaching and total chlorine free bleaching sequences for papermaking can be a valuable approach for reducing pollutants generation, utilization of waste biomass and fulfillment of fibrous raw material requirement for paper industry.