Could wheat and barley compete with wood fiber in the paper industry?

By Greg Booth
From its creation in China some 2,000 years ago, paper has been made from all types of plant fibers. When Europeans adopted papermaking they used only linen. Legend has it that in an extreme shortage of raw materials, early papermakers even unwrapped mummies to use the linen fiber for their craft.

As paper demands increased, manufacturers turned to larger sources of raw material. The paper you're reading now probably has its origins in wood pulp, which came into use in the 1870s. While mummy wrappings are no longer considered as a source of pulp, an AURI task force is looking into ag alternatives for usable pulp.

Wheat and barley and wood
"We're looking at a wide variety of different agricultural residues, using relatively new technology, to evaluate the potential to replace a portion of the wood fibers with ag fibers," says Brent Sorenson, manager of AURI's Crookston office. "So far, we've worked with wheat and barley and a combination of those."

The task force found that a significant amount -- up to 30 percent -- of paper fibers can be made up of wheat and barley residue. The studies could result in a farmer-owned facility that would process wheat, barley and other crop by-products into usable fiber for the paper industry, Sorenson says. At the same time it would add value to existing crops, such a facility would reduce demand on Minnesota's forests.

The task force includes representatives from Blandin Paper Company, the University of Minnesota's Paper Sciences and Engineering Department, the Minnesota Wheat and Barley Steering Committee, The Nature Conservancy and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

As natural as bedding
One task force member says ag residue is a natural for making paper. "We can take a harvest of straw every four years," says Marv Zutz of the Minnesota Wheat and Barley Steering Committee. Wheat straw and other ag fibers are already being used for lumber, animal bedding and other products, he points out.

"This would be an alternative to those, and we're hoping it would be higher up the value chain." Many farmers don't have animals to utilize straw bedding, and would welcome a way to make extra income from straw in years they don't turn it back into the soil.

The task force found that pulp from wheat and barley straw, mixed with wood pulp, meets paper industry specifications, Zutz says. The group is looking into the feasibility and financing of a large-scale facility and a farmer-owned cooperative to produce the fiber pulp. A plant could be located in northwest Minnesota for easy access to wheat, barley and existing paper mills, Zutz says.

Are growers interested? "Absolutely -- if we can add value to what we have already, and offset the losses" of the organic matter from the soil, says task force member Curt Knutson, a Fisher, Minn. barley grower.

Questions to plow through
There are still many unanswered questions about ag fiber pulp, says AURI scientist Ed Wene. "The thrust of the task force is to determine if there is a market for ag fiber pulp and if it can be produced at a competitive price.

"Minnesota is facing a reduced supply of pulpwood due to reduced numbers of aspen in the 20 to 40 year old age category," says Wene, who has worked extensively with hybrid poplars as an alternative crop for energy or fiber.

Timing is good
The task force isn't AURI's first foray into paper. AURI scientist Bill Stoll has a long-time interest in papermaking technology, and has worked closely with AURI clients Marge and Harold Alexander and Heartland Fibers in both handmade and commercial pulps from vegetable fibers.

"It seems like the timing is pretty good on this as we begin to develop concerns about adequate wood supplies for fiber, as well as environmental concerns with cutting the forests," Stoll says. There are many problems to be addressed, however, including the logistics of getting the agricultural products to the paper mills.

Stoll says that task force members Ulrike Tschirner and Shri Ramaswami from the University of Minnesota are on the cutting edge of emerging pulping technology, "which gives this project a new twist." Their technology involves using ethyl alcohol in the pulping operation.

One of the attractions of agricultural fibers is the ease in pulping, Stoll says. "There are existing pulping mills for ag fibers in other countries."

Ag fiber for paper looks like "a winner on three fronts," Zutz says. "The consumer wins, the farmer wins, the paper company wins."