Virgin pulp can be made from both wood and non-wood. How to classify which plant is wood or
non-wood, it is described as following;
Plant stem, such as bamboo, kenaf, bagasse, rice straw, and so on, which consists of node and internode, is called non-wood. Non-woods have fast growth,
contain less lignin when compare with wood. Therefore, other plants that are no node and internode, are called wood. The example of wood and non-wood is shown in the Fig. 1.
Fig. 1 Example of wood and non-wood
Wood can be classified as softwood and hardwood. The differences between softwood and hardwood
are explained as follows;
Hardwood
Hardwoods have large leaves that they shed leaves every autumn such as oak and maple. These plant species slowly grow and usually be found in Europe
and America (northern hemisphere).
Softwood
Softwoods have a large of annual ring due to fast growth and big trunk. They are usually evergreen such as pine or spruce.
The differences between hardwood and softwood are concluded in Table 1;
Table 1 Comparison between hardwood and softwood
Therefore, the key parameter for application is the fiber length. If the users would like to increase the strength of the product, the pulp from softwoods
should be selected because of their long fiber characteristics.
Fiber length of non-wood cannot be compared with softwood and hardwood because the fiber length is between the length of softwood and hardwood.
However, it depends on the species of non-wood plant.
Daiwa Shiryo Trading can provide virgin pulps both long and short fiber including non-wood species from many areas as follows;
NBKP from Finland
LBKP from South Korea
Unbleached bamboo pulp from Thailand
Bleached bamboo pulp from China
etc.
If you are interested in these products, please do not hesitate to contact us via sales@daiwashiryotrading.com for more information.