Characterization of paper sheets from agricultural residues

Summary In this work we characterized olive tree fellings, wheat straw, sunflower stalks, vine shoots and cotton plant stalks, as well as pulp and paper sheets obtained from them. Thus, we determined the 1% NaOH solubles, alcohol-benzene extractables, ash, holocellulose, lignin, -cellulose and pentosans in the aforementioned agricultural residues and their pulps, as well as the breaking length, stretch, burst index, tear index, porosity and water absorption of the resulting paper sheets, which were also subjected to the concora medium, concora crush and rings crush tests. Wheat straw and vine shoots were found to be the most and least suitable raw material, respectively, for paper production.The authors are grateful to the DGICyT for financial support of Project PB87 0820