Scientists develop technology for producing paper from cotton stalks

A technology for producing paper from cotton stalks has been developed at the Northern Arctic Federal University (NAFU) in Arkhangelsk, Russia, the university announced. The development was carried out by a graduate student from Uzbekistan, Ismoil Sodikov, who brought the raw materials (cotton plants) from his homeland, which is a former Soviet republic.

“Pulp can be produced from any fibrous raw material. That’s how I came up with the idea of ​​developing for my country (Uzbekistan) a paper production system from cotton stalks using technology that would not require the construction of large factories,” the scientist explained how he came to this successful realization.

He explained that “in Uzbekistan the pulp and paper industry cannot exist on the same scale as in Arkhangelsk and in Russia as a whole, because there are no forests there, but cotton is no less valuable raw material (for paper production) than many types of wood. It is possible to produce paper by obtaining fibers “polyfabricated from cotton stems and in this way, the necessary paper in Uzbekistan can be partially ensured,” explains Sodikov, who has just started working on it.

The production of paper from cotton stems currently solves the problem of the utilization of cotton stems and the shortage of raw materials for the paper industry in countries with a developed agricultural economy.

Cotton stems look somewhat like willow branches – in winter they are used by local residents for heating or for fodder for domestic animals, but most of the stems are left in the field in the summer. Uzbekistan is a textile country, and it is also one of the leaders in cotton supplies to other countries.

The current research of the scientific collaborator is part of the larger-scale efforts of the Innovation and Technology Center “Modern Technologies for Processing Bioresources of the North” at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences to find new types of raw materials and develop technologies for obtaining materials for the production of paper and cardboard.

In this regard, Hatalia Shcherbak, head of the Department of Pulp and Paper and Chemical Production at the Former School of Natural Resources and Technologies of the State Agricultural University, comments that “in Astrakhan during the Soviet era there was a plant that produced wood-fiber boards from reeds, and this building material was in demand on the local market.” According to her, “old ideas are now being revived, transformed for new conditions, because there are new types of equipment, chemicals, stricter environmental requirements, and there is a great demand for modern types of materials.”

Illustrative Photo by Nur  Yilmaz: https://www.pexels.com/photo/cotton-on-white-background-9702241/