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LECTURE 1
TOPIC : PAPER HISTORY, IMPORTANCE, RAW MATERIALS AND
NECESSARY UTILITIES.
INTRODUCTION:
In AD 105, a Chinese Tsai Lun successfully used the bark of the mulbery
tree, fishing nets and rags to make paper. The discovery was transferred by
captured Chinese during the Arabs- Indo/Chinese wars to Arabs who thereafter
established a paper mill at Baghdad in modern Iraq. When this knowledge
reached Egypt, where writing on stones had been established , the Egyptians
then used the reeds on the Nile like Cyperus papyrus to make more paper to
advance their civilization.
From Egypt the knowledge spread to Europe as shown in the dates below:
Spain AD 1150
France AD 1189
Italy AD 1260
Germany AD 1389
Holland AD 1428
Great Britain ( Hertfordshire ) AD 1490
Sweden ( Motala ) AD 1538
Russia ( Moscow ) AD 1690
USA ( Germanstown ) AD 1690
Norway ( Oslo ) AD 1698
Nigeria ( Jebba ) AD 1964
PAPER IN SOCIETY:
Education, commerce and industry, newspapers, governance homes as wall paper and
toilet rolls/ napkins. Even with the invasion of the computer, paper is and will
continue to be an indispensable material for society. That is why the NORDIC countries
(NORWAY, SWEDEN AND DENMARK ),Finland, Canada base their economy on
the Pulp and Paper Industry. Efforts to re-activate Nigerias Pulp and Paper
Industry are commendable. OIL CAN BE EXHAUSTED BUT TREES CAN BE
RE-PLANTED AND USED FOR PAPER-MAKING.
RAW MATERIALS :
CHEMICALS:
WOOD CONSTITUENTS:
Fibres made of cellulose, hemicellulose. The fibres may be long, medium, short.
Long fibres --------Fibre length > 2mm
Medium fibre ------Fibre length > 1.5mm 2mm
Short Fibre ------- Fibre length < 1.5 mm
FEATURES:
Typically woods cross section has the following important features:
Fig. 1: Diagram of a Cross Section of Soft wood Tracheid before pulping indicating commonly found
dimensions and the fibrillar arrangements within the wall layers (nanometer = one millionth of a
millimeter).
Annual rings Age of the tree
Cambium --------
Cell wall consisting of outer, inner and tertiary secondary walls
Lumen-------
Middle Lamella ------
IMPORTANT FIBRE PARAMETERS
Fibre Length (L)
Fibre Width (D)
Cell wall thickness (W)
Lumen (l)
Ratios:
Runkel Ratio = 2W/L
Slenderness Ratio = L/D
Coefficient of flexibility = l/D
Bulk density = M/V (M= Mass, V= Volume)
CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS OF WOOD
Cellulose
H OH CH2OH
O
H H
OH H H
O
H HO H
H O O H
Cellulose is a natural polymer of polysaccharides (45%). Thin hair like fibres when
beaten can coalesce together because of the presence of hydrogen bonds to form a
paper matrix.
HEMICELLULOSE:
LIGNIN:
Fig. 11 Fig. 12
Source: Adapted from Othemers Ency. Of Chem. Tech: Vol. 14, pp.
305.
Lignin is mainly abietic acid made of phenyl propane units. In wood 19 30%
Moisture: Absorbed by plants from both the atmosphere and transpiration from the
roots into the stems tracheids.
Ash: Minerals constituents from the soil through the roots into the stem. Burning
liberates the minerals. (Pot ash) first obtained by burning woods.
Roe Number: A measure of the amount of chlorine required for bleaching pulp.
Superheated steam @ >> T, >> P is used to drive a turbines rotor with alternator to
produce electricity. Lowering the T, P of the superheated steam from the boiler to the
level at which steam passes from the turbine results in extraction of energy used for
driving the blades of the turbine which are connected to the rotor.