Fibers Obtained from Invasive Alien Plant Species as a Base Material for Paper Production

Abstract

Invasive alien plant species (IAPS) are one of the biggest challenges in European ecosystems, displacing local vegetation, destroying agricultural land, and causing billions of dollars of damage to the European economy every year. Many of them are removed daily and mainly burned. In this work, we investigated the possibilities of using plants as feedstock for paper production. Papers made from three invasive alien plants, i.e., Knotweed, Goldenrod, and Black locust, were studied and compared with commercial office paper. The study included testing of: (1) structural properties—basic physical properties, grammage, thickness, density and specific volume, moisture content, and ash content; (2) physical and dynamic mechanical properties—tensile strength, Clark stiffness, viscoelastic properties; (3) colorimetric properties of prints; (4) effect of UV light on ageing; and (5) study of cellulose fiber structure and morphology by microscopy. The results suggested that the paper produced can be used as commercial office paper, considering that the paper is slightly dyed. Such papers can also be used for special purposes that present a natural style and connection to nature. The papers produced can also be used for printing documents that are meant to be kept.

Crosslinked starch-coated cellulosic papers as alternative food-packaging materials

“…60 In other words, it gives information on how well a material absorbs energy. 60 Marica et al 61 reported a similar trend of tan d for cellulosic papers from different plants, reporting that the viscoelastic behavior of cellulosic papers can be mainly attributed to the lignin and hemicellulose. 61 It is also important to emphasize that the temperature relaxation behavior of the cellulose structure is extremely complex due to its heterogeneity, so it is difficult to distinguish which component is responsible for the overall behavior of the structure.…”

Invasive plants as biosorbents for environmental remediation: a review

“…Although there are some detrimental effects on the ecology, economy, and human health of such species, they are exploited as animal feed, food source, ornamental, and traditional medicine (Feng et al 2021). Because of their abundant biomass, several exotic species have exhibited added values for paper production (Starešinič et al 2021) and cosmetics (Nguyen et al 2021d).…”

Impact of Invasive Plant Species on Ecosystems, Biodiversity Loss and Their Potential Industrial Applications

“…It was obtained from Goldenrods, Knotweeds and Black Locust papers with a quality suitable for their sale and even for printing (Starešinič et al, 2021. Natural dyes such as the one produced from the petals of Impatiens glandulifera can be used in obtaining colored paper (Klančnik, 2021).…”

“…Invasive species causes serious economic problems (Adelino et al, 2021, Shahrtash and Brown, 2021, Starešinič et al, 2021 and imbalances in the ecosystems where these settle in (Starešinič et al, 2021), even in protected areas (Pathak et al, 2021, Bakacsy andBagi, 2020) where a low number of classical control methods can be implemented (Ngondya et al, 2019). Unfortunately, most of the time interest is given to covering losses incurred, not to preventing them (Adelino et al, 2021).…”