In a recently published study , researchers tested oat husks, wheat straw, potato pulp, and sugar beet pulp. Oat husks and wheat straw proved to be the most effective for developing a pulp, called dissolving pulp, which is used to make clothing.

– With this method, which we further developed in this study, we show that you can make textile pulp from certain agricultural waste products, says Diana Bernin, Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Chalmers and senior researcher in the study.

The method is easier and requires fewer chemicals than manufacturing forest-based cellulose.

More sustainable manufacturing with lye

The team used soda pulping as one part of the process. This means that the raw material is boiled in lye, which makes manufacturing more sustainable.

Professor Diana Bernin says it is likely that several other agricultural waste products can be used for textile manufacture using the method her team developed.

– Lye doesn’t contain any toxins or substances that impact nature, Bernin explains.

– Soda pulping doesn’t work for wood fibres, so making textile pulp from wheat straw and oat husks requires fewer chemicals than making forest-based cellulose.

– It’s also a simpler procedure, in part because it doesn’t require processing such as chipping and debarking. In addition, it increases the economic value of oats and wheat, when leftovers from their production can be used as raw materials for cellulose extraction.”

Bernin says it is likely that several other agricultural waste products can be used for textile manufacture using the method her team developed.

She is currently involved in an international project that has found, using the method in this study, that press-cake from grass from fields works very well to create dissolving pulp.

Hope of using existing industries

In the long run, Bernin sees good opportunities to use the pulp-and-paper industry, which already has technology and processes in place, to make dissolving pulp from agricultural waste.

– If we can make use of our existing industry and adjust their processes instead of building new production facilities, we’ve already come a long way, she says.

The lead author of the study is Joanna Wojtasz, former postdoc at Chalmers and now a researcher at the innovation company Tree To Textile, which is one of the partners in the project.

Vaula Aunola