Journal of Korea TAPPI ISSN:0253-3200(Print) 펄프종이기술

The mechanical defibration of rice straw was conducted to determine a feasible method for its diverse utilization as an alternative to wood fibers, especially for use as a raw material for pulp mold. In this study, dry and wet processes were used to defibrate rice straw and the characteristics of defibrated rice straw obtained using different mechanical defibration processes were analyzed. Two types of wet mechanical methods such as the valley beater process and the micro-grinder process were applied. Compared to the valley beater process, the micro-grinder process increased fines generation. Alkaline pretreatment and the high temperature conditions for the mechanical processes increased the defibration efficiency for both wet mechanical processes. The dry mechanical processes such as the grinding mill process and the hammer mill process resulted in the higher fiber generation than the wet processes. The grinding mill process exhibited higher defibration efficiency than the hammer mill process with respect to rice straw; moreover the hammer mill process generated more fines rather than fibers. The strength of the pulp mold manufactured using the fibers generated via the grinding mill process was higher than the strength of pulp molds manufactured using fibers/fines generated via other methods because of the high defibration efficiency of the grinding mill process.