UTILIZATION OF AN INVASIVE SPECIES (Spartina alternifolia) IN THE MOLDED PULP INDUSTRY

As the world s forest resources become increasingly scarce, there is a serious shortage of fiber raw materials for the pulp industry. As a result, non-wood fibers are becoming more and more widely used as raw materials in this industry. In addition, non-wood fibers may be obtained from increasing supplies of biological wastes, and rapidly spreading invasive plants, such as monocotyledonous grasses. A good management practice for many invasive plants with huge biomass potential is to maximize use of them, in order to reach a position of balance, with regard to the control of the species. As an example, this paper discusses the utilization potential of Spartina alternifolia, a grass species, which has invaded large areas of coastal regions of Eastern China. Our present studies show that Spartina’s fiber composition includes: cellulose 35.9%, hemicelluloses 27.2%, lignin 15.9% and ash 9.98%. The length of Spartina fibers is shorter and narrower than bamboo fibers, which. to a certain extent, makes it hard for its stems to be developed into chemical pulp. However, for this wild grass, a thermo-mechanical pulping (TMP) process was found to be easier to develop and mix with chemical pulps to manufacture molded pulp products. With new innovations in the world-wide packaging industry, molded pulp products (MPP) may be used in larger quantities and in a broader range of fields. Our present study aims to make TMP fibers from Spartina composites with other chemical pulps to produce MPP. Utilization of wild grasses, such as Spartina, has the following advantages: 1) It provides a new use for biomass of invasive species, which are considered problematic in many situations; 2) The species, with its large potential for biomass production, provides the opportunity to store CO2 and biomass on a large scale; 3) Such biomass provides new industrial raw materials for replacing wood fiber-based chemical pulps and petroleum-derived plastics; 4) The technology allows a reduction of pollution, which could arise from wood fiber-based chemical pulping processes; and 5) The materials derived from these species allows new innovations, including the creation of new products with improved characteristics, such as hardness and strength.