
Researchers Seek New Uses for
"Black Liquor"By Linda McGraw February 22, 2000Scientists with
ARS and
Vision Paper, Inc., of Albuquerque,
New Mexico, have rolled up their sleeves and dirtied their hands to find new
uses for "black liquor," a crude byproduct of pulping kenaf fiber.
Twenty-five years ago, ARS scientists at the
National Center for Agricultural
Utilization Research Center in Peoria, Illinois, developed a process to
turn kenaf into newsprint. Originally from Africa, kenaf is a renewable fiber crop closely related to
cotton. It reaches heights of 14 feet in less than seven months. Kenaf stalks
provide two to three times more fiber per acre annually than the Southern Pine,
a paper industry staple in the U.S. South. U.S. farmers can grow kenaf in place
of corn, soybeans, cotton, or rice. Black liquor is usually burned for fuel or chemical recovery, but often
small paper mills can't afford expensive incinerators, according to new crops
research leader Thomas P. Abbott. Led by Abbott, the Peoria-based research
team, including one employee of Vision Paper, found that chitosan, made from
ground-up crab shells, helps turn the dissolved kenaf lignin into a solid cake.
The solid cake will be tested as an animal feed pellet binder. The remaining
soluble black liquor can be converted to a dry fertilizer that has 22.2 percent
nitrogen and is low in sodium. In the overall process, black liquor is turned
into salable products instead of greenhouse gases. Abbott spoke about this work at the meeting
Kenaf Fiber for the 21st
Century, the 3rd annual conference of the
American Kenaf Society in Corpus
Christi, Texas, Feb. 24-26. Scientific contact: Thomas P. Abbott, ARS National Center for
Agricultural Utilization Research, Peoria, Ill., phone (309) 681-6533,
[email protected]
. U.S. Department of Agriculture | |