Ecologically beneficial reuse of rice straw
Rice straw is openly burnt in the farms in parts of India as it is not efficiently used as compost or cattle feed. In a new work, a unique approach was used in an attempt to utilise the rice straw grown in the Indian state of Haryana. It was converted into a paperboard of 200 g/m2 and was coated with up to 10 g/m2 cellulose nano-fibrils (CNF) extracted from the rice straw.
Improves properties of the paperboard
Various properties of the coated paperboard were tested and it was found that the coating played a great role toward reducing Bendtsen roughness, water absorption, and porosity; while improving water vapor barrier and grease-resistance.
The study has been published in Progress in Organic Coatings, Volume 165, April 2022.