A study of using grass (Malaysian foxtail) fiber in paper making

Abstract

A various types of grasses can be found in Malaysia. A few of grass can be used for animal food and as a covering the earth only. More than that, grasses always abandoned or fired. Foxtail grass, also known as ‘rumput bulu’ by the local people, is one of the fast growing grasses abundantly available all over Malaysia. To avoid wasting of this source of natural, a study of using grasses fiber in paper making is produced. By using this grass, various testing had been done to determine whether foxtail grass has a potential to replaced kenaf, wood pulp or hemp in paper making. The fibers were prepared by mechanical grinding procedure and the fiber size and length produced can be controlled through the grinding time of this grass material. The conventional procedure of paper making is following after grinding process. Admixtures and chemical is not used in this project, because this paper only focuses to confirm whether grass fiber is suitable or not in paper making. Result from the testing that had been done showed that longer the time used in the grinding process, will produce finer the fiber size. As a conclusion, this grass fiber may be considered as one of the potential sources of natural/agro fibers for paper making.