Using agar extraction waste of Gracilaria lemaneiform is in the papermaking industry

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Using agar extraction waste of Gracilaria lemaneiformis in the papermaking industry Jicheng Pei & Apeng Lin & Fangdong Zhang & Daling Zhu & Jian Li & Guangce Wang

Received: 27 April 2012 / Revised and accepted: 11 October 2012 / Published online: 30 October 2012 # Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2012

Abstract In China, fiber supply lags behind the growing demand for paper and paperboard products. The increasing consumption of paper products necessitated the need for new fiber sources. The red alga Gracilariopsis lemaneiformis is economically cultivated on a large scale in China for industrial agar extraction. During the extraction processes, considerable amounts of solid residues are produced as extraction wastes. In this study, we explored the potential of using the agar extraction residues as raw materials for pulping and papermaking. The results show that the extraction wastes of G. lemaneiformis could indeed be utilized for papermaking. Evaluation of the paper handsheets showed that a higher content of algal material resulted in paper that had lower strength and permeability but higher waterproof and greaseproof characteristics, as well as better antimicrobial effects. The results indicated that alga extraction residues could be employed as functional fillers to produce paper products that are potentially useful in the foodpackaging industry. Keywords Agar extraction waste . Antimicrobial activity . Food packaging . Gracilariopsis lemaneiformis . Paper . Greaseproofness

Jicheng Pei, Apeng Lin, and Fangdong Zhang contributed equally to this work J. Pei : F. Zhang : D. Zhu : J. Li Tianjin Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 300457, China A. Lin : G. Wang (*) Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China e-mail: [email protected]

Introduction Paper pulp manufacturing is the main nonfood industrial utilization of plant biomass. China has become the world’s biggest paper and paperboard producer and accounts for 24 % of the global production (Tissari 2011a). It is estimated that China’s paper demand will overtake that of the USA and Europe in 2013 and more than double by 2021 (Haley 2010). However, China’s wood supply lags behind the growing demands of its paper industry (ChinaPaperAssociation 2011; Zhang 2004). Although reforestation/afforestation on a national level has resulted in significant increases in its forest area, today China’s forest base per capita is still among the smallest in the world and less than a quarter of the world’s average. Furthermore, forest resources in China are unevenly distributed, and many are practically unavailable (FAO 2010a; Shi et al. 2011). Consequently, China has become the world’s largest importer of paper pulp and recycled paper. In 2009, despite a balance between paper production and consumption, China imported 30 % of the wood pulp and more than half of the recovered paper available globally (Tissari 2011a, b). These raw materials came with huge costs. It is currently estimated that