Wheat Straw: Within-Plant Variation in Chemical Composition and Fiber Properties, 2000 Pulping / Process & Product Quality Conference Proceedings

R. S. Jacobs, W. L. Pan, W. S. Fuller, W. T. McKean--The chemical composition and fiber properties of wheat straw vary along the stem and between the internodes, nodes and leaves. Leaf removal, as a minimum would improve the fiber length distribution, drainage, pulping yield, and the amount of inorganics entering the pulp mill. Using just the internodal sections by removing both the leaves and the nodes would result in the best papermaking raw material. This internodal fraction has a superior fiber length distribution and the lowest inorganics content.

The upper portion of the plant contains more inorganics and a lower average fiber length than the rest of the plant. This variation would be significant when comparing two methods of straw collection: collecting just the upper internodal sections or collecting all of the internodes. The later option would result in a superior raw material having a lower inorganic content, higher pulping yield, superior drainage and improved fiber length distribution.