Situation in Québec

Resinous fiber, especially the one of spruce, is still favoured in Québec. However, the virgin fiber is now scarcer, more costly and located further from the paper mills. The paper pulp producers have the choice to either develop the forest resources and/or to use better and more the bot broad-leaved trees and/or to recycle more old papers and/or to use agricultural fibers as support fibers.

Producers have little control on the supply of recycled fibers: quantity, quality and prices can vary greatly. On the other side, there are large agricultural areas that are less productive and that could be dedicated to grow trees for paper production, solving the supply problem. However, the construction industry is often in competition with pulp producers for this main resource. Hence, plant materials, such as straw, could be a very interesting alternative resource for the production of pulp and especially for the manufacture of construction materials since a lot of construction materials presently built present serious disposal problems while straw is recyclable and biodegradable.

At the moment, in Québec, there is no industrial production of pulp and paper from agricultural fibers. But according to the people at the head of the pulp and paper industry, the production should start in about 5 to 8 years from now.

Research and development

The traditional processes of transformation of agricultural fibers into pulp are costly and polluting. At the moment, many new processes are being studied or developed in Europe and North America. In Alberta, the company Arbokem perfected a process to convert agricultural fibers into pulp without effluent. The company wish to establish small plants (20 000-30 000 t/yr).

In Québec, the research center of the CÉGEP de Trois-Rivières, that specializes in pulp and paper, is developing a technology that uses yearly fibers to produce pulp and paper. This technology would solve two problems in the same time: the agricultural fiber is used to make paper and the wastes are returned in the soil as fertilizers.

Examples of experts available in Québec

Industries:

Cascades, Stone, Domtar, Noranda

Universities:

CRPP, CSPP, IRBV, REAP, UQAC, UQAT, Laval, Sherbrooke

Gouvernment:

Forintek, Paprican

Equipment manufacturers:

Hymac, GLV

Many researches show that it is possible to use straw and other agricultural fibers to manufacture composite boards. Experts think that the market for these boards made of agricultural fibers could grow quickly in North America, especially because of the increasing cost for wood.

Other fibers

Apart from straw, different natural fibers are used to make paper depending on the climate where the crop is grown and the applications: miscanthus in Central Europe, sorghum in France, hemp in Netherlands (it is illegal elsewhere) and kenaf in United States. Kenaf is a fast growing relative of cotton and okra, which can be grown as an annual crop in the South and Southwest of USA to produce high yields of pulp suitable for newsprint. Currently, USA import about $4 billion worth of newsprint annually and kenaf grown in the United States could provide a new domestic source of pulp. Pilot programs to produce kenaf paper are in operation in Texas, Mississippi and other states.

Also, in many places, intensive cultures on short rotations of bush forest species (willow tree, poplar tree, etc.) and flax, which is extremely resistant to bacterial breakdown, are considered with interest for the production of pulp.