From: [b--as--l] at [igc.org] (Ben Masel) Date: 8 Mar 92 03:30:00 GMT Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs Subject: Re: Book burning REPOSTING: The following two responses are abstracts of papers presented at the First European Conference on Industrial Uses for Agricultural Crops, held at Maastricht, The Netherlands last November. I hope to have the full papers soon, and will post when available. ben CHARACTERISATION AND PROCESSING OF ANNUAL CROPS (ESP. HEMP) FOR PULP AND PAPER MARIE-JOSE DE SMET AGROTECHNICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE, ATO-DLO, HAAGSTEEG 6, 6700 AA WAGENINGEN (THE NETHERLANDS) Hemp is a nonwoody annual plant containing two types of cellulose fibers, of which one type originates from the bark, and the other from the wood part of the stem. These fibers have different physical properties and chemical composition. The long flexible bast fiber which occurs in high proportion has long been used for textiles and ropemaking. Both fibers can be used in the preparation of pulp, paper, and probably numerous other products. An important characteristic of the pulping of hemp compared to wood is the treatment neccessary to produce pulp is milder. These and other data have raised the possibility of new approaches to pulp manufacturing that overcome the serious environmental problems created by the pulp and paper industry and of developing energy efficient processes. The production of pulp and paper from hemp consists of various operations. Preliminary production steps are the seperation of bark and wood and if storage is required drying or ensiling. The numerous steps are: pulping, bleaching, waste-water treatment, and the basic operations in papermaking. All these tasks are being studied and optimized. The pulping process we have focused on are: thermomechanical and chemo- thermomechanical pulping, alkaline extraction, organosolv pulping, and biopulping. The results obtained are promising and indicate that pulp and paper can be prepared from hemp using clean processes and that substantial energy savings can be achieved. Different qualities of pulp and paper can be produce dependent on the pulping process. __________________________________________________ VARIATION OF HEMP (CANNABIS SATIVA) FOR STEM YIELD AND STEM QUALITY RELATED CHARACTERS E.P.M. De Meyer CPO, P.O.Box 16, 6700 Wageningen, The Netherlands The feasibility of the production of cellulose by means of the annual crop Cannabis Sativa is being studied in the Netherlands. This paper deals with one of the basic steps of the project, the establishment of a Cannabis collection and the characterisation of the populations with respect to yield and quality. Until now varieties of domesticated Cannabis are selected for the production of either phloem fibers or narcotic resin. Both groups are represented in the collection, as well as a third group consisting of spontaneous populations. The complete collection contains about 160 more or less distinctive populations. After evaluation, selected populations will be used in a breeding programme. The dry matter production of cannabis plants depends primarily on the legnth of the inductive photoperiod which determines the duration of the vegetative period at a certain latitude. The harvest index - the fraction of the main stems of the total dry matter - depends on plant habit traits like degree of branching and internode legnth. A summary of the variation for vegetative growth will be presented in relation to stem growth parameters as measured in a field experiment. The optimal quality properties of cellulose pulp varieties of Cannabis are still under study but it is already clear that the available fiber varieties only partially meet the requirements. Alternative sources of raw materials for paper pulp production are usually compared with the main source at present which is conifer wood. A comparison of Cannabis fiber dimensions and conifer wood dimensions will be presented. Only the fraction of secondary phloem fibers is similar to conifer fibers. Almost no variation has been detected for the length of the relatively short wood fibers of Cannabis, which hampers attempts to improve the quality of the xylem fraction by means of breeding. The phloem fibers are considered to be the most valuable components of the stem. A quick method to estimate phloem fiber content was developed and results of the evaluation of the collection with respect to fiber content will be presented. Also a method to estimate the amount of primary and secondary fibers within the total fraction of phloem fibers will be discussed. ------------------------------------------------------------ Ben Masel, Director WI NORML [b--as--l] at [igc.org] 608-257-5456 911 Williamson St, Madison WI 53703 i didn't put politics in the gutter, i found it there. ------------------------------------------------------------