Twenty-Five Years of Global Progress in Nonwood Plant Fiber Pulping-Historical Highlights, Present Status, and Future Prospects, 1995 Pulping Conference Proceedings

Joseph E. Atchison

Joseph E. Atchison Consultants, Inc.

The background, from which the present Nonwood Plant Fiber Committee evolved, is outlined, starting with the TAPPI Agricultural Residues Committee, which held its first meeting, in 1945, and which consisted almost entirely of representatives of the straw corrugating mills, in the Midwest. The name was subsequently revised, to drop the word "Residues" and then became The Agricultural Fibers Committee, As the straw board industry gradually diminished, and eventually ended, there was little incentive for the committee to continue, and it merely became a Sub-Committee of the Alkaline Pulping Committee. Then due to the concentrated effort being made on kenaf pulping in the 1960s, the TAPPI AdHoc Committee on Kenaf was formed in 1965 to replace the Agricultural Committee. From this evolved the Nonwood Plant Fiber Research Committee in 1969, within the Research and Development Division, and subsequently in 1970, the Nonwood Plant Fibers Committee, as we now know it, evolved, in its place, under the Pulp Manufacture Division, dropping the word "Research" from the title. Global Progress in nonwood plant fiber pulping capacity is described, including lists of the leading countries overall, and separately the leading countries in straw, bagasse, and bamboo pulping and the leading countries in the use of miscellaneous non-wood plant fibers, including reeds, grasses, flax, abaca, hemp, jute, kenaf, cotton linters, cotton fiber and other materials. This shows China to be in the lead overall by a wide margin, with 86.9% of its pulp being produced from nonwood plant fibers. However, at least 47 countries in the world produce some nonwood plant fiber pulp, with some of these producing 100% of their pulp from these raw materials and some 10 countries with more than 50% of their pulping capacity for nonwood pulping.