Cellulosic pulp from vine shoots

In this work, vine shoots were characterized as an alternative type of papermaking raw material, and so were the resulting pulp for paper. The results for four different vine shoot varieties (viz. Airen, Cencibel, Cavernet Sauvignon and Macabeo) grown using two different methods (goblets and espaliers) revealed no significant differences in composition among vine varieties or between growing methods. The holo-cellulose content of vine shoots (67.14 %) is lower than those of other agricultural residues and non-wood raw materials (e.g. wheat straw, sunflower stalks, cotton stalks, rice straw, sugarcane bagasse, esparto, flax and reed), but similar to the of pinewood and higher to the of trimmings of olive trees. On the other hand, their lignin content (20.27%) is similar to those of eucalyptus and the non-wood raw materials. Also, their contents in cold-water, hot-water and 1 % soda solubles (viz. 12.83%, 16.09% and 39.1%), and those in ethanol-benzene extractables (4.87%), are intermediate among those for such non-wood materials; all exceed the values for pine and eucalyptus wood. Soda, kraft, ethanol and ethylene-glycol pulping processes have low yields (29-47%) relative to the pulping processes applied to trimmings of olive trees and wheat straw. Kraft pulp from vine shoots is that exhibiting the highest alpha-cellulose content (73.74%), as well as a higher lignin content (17.18%) than pulp from wheat straw or trimmings of olive trees.