Market Farming

[ARS News Service <isnv AT ars-grin.gov>]

STORY LEAD:
Researchers Seek New Uses for "Black Liquor"

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ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Linda McGraw, (309) 681-6530, lmcgraw AT asrr.arsusda.gov
February 22, 2000
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Scientists with ARS and Vision Paper, Inc., of Albuquerque, New
Mexico, have
rolled up their sleeves and dirtied their hands to find new uses for
"black
liquor," a crude byproduct of pulping kenaf fiber. Twenty-five years
ago,
ARS scientists at the National Center for Agricultural Utilization
Research
Center in Peoria, Illinois, developed a process to turn kenaf into
newsprint.

Originally from Africa, kenaf is a renewable fiber crop closely
related to
cotton. It reaches heights of 14 feet in less than seven months. Kenaf
stalks provide two to three times more fiber per acre annually than
the
Southern Pine, a paper industry staple in the U.S. South. U.S. farmers
can
grow kenaf in place of corn, soybeans, cotton, or rice.

Black liquor is usually burned for fuel or chemical recovery, but
often
small paper mills can't afford expensive incinerators, according to
new
crops research leader Thomas P. Abbott. Led by Abbott, the
Peoria-based
research team, including one employee of Vision Paper, found that
chitosan,
made from ground-up crab shells, helps turn the dissolved kenaf lignin
into
a solid cake. The solid cake will be tested as an animal feed pellet
binder.
The remaining soluble black liquor can be converted to a dry
fertilizer that
has 22.2 percent nitrogen and is low in sodium. In the overall
process,
black liquor is turned into salable products instead of greenhouse
gases.

Abbott is scheduled to speak about this work at the meeting Kenaf
Fiber for
the 21st Century, the 3rd annual conference of the American Kenaf
Society in
Corpus Christi, Texas, Feb. 24-26.

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Scientific contact: Thomas P. Abbott, ARS National Center for
Agricultural
Utilization Research, Peoria, Ill.,phone(309) 681-6533,
abbotttp AT ncaur.mail.usda.gov.
Lawrence F. London, Jr. Venaura Farm ICQ#27930345
lflondon AT mindspring.com  london AT metalab.unc.edu
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