The growing demand for cellulose in various industries have necessitated the search for sustainable alternatives to traditional tree sources of cellulose. This study investigated the potential of agricultural wastes such as rice husk, maize husk, maize straw and sorghum straw to serve as viable sources of cellulose pulp for the paper industry with the aim of curbing deforestation for paper. The study sort to recover cellulose from the aforementioned agri-wastes, using the Kraft method and to characterize each agri-waste for pulp yield. The resulting pulps were also characterized by determining their Kappa number, drainage index, ash content, and fiber length. The paper produced from each agri-waste was also characterized. The results showed that; sorghum straw produced the highest yield of cellulose (46.6 %), thus making it comparable to conventional wood sources which yield between 18 % to 55 %. Also, the quality of pulp from sorghum straw was found to be comparable to those from conventional tree sources predominant in the market. The physicochemical properties of the resulting papers from these agri-wastes suggest their suitability for both low-strength and general-purpose paper applications. The study showed that valorizing the aforementioned agri-wastes hold good prospects for mitigating the deforestation associated with paper production and the environmental impacts therefrom, as some of these wastes are capable of yielding cellulose pulp that is comparable both in quality and quantity to traditional tree sources which presently serve as feed stock for the paper industry.
Keywords: Deforestation, Paper, agricultural waste, cellulose pulp
