This award is for support of a cooperative project by Dr. Jameel Hasan, Department of Wood and Paper Science at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC, and Dr. Housni ElSaied, Cellulose and Paper Department at the National Research Center (NRC) in Cairo, Egypt. The objective of this joint research is to study ways to utilize basic cellulosic raw materials considered to be waste from agricultural products, for producing high quality pulp. The main materials to be studied would be rice straw and cotton stalks. The final pulp would be tested for use in the packaging paper products in place of the expensive imported materials or in combination with recycled paper material. The use of mechanochemical processes can be expected to increase the percent yield, in pulp from the raw material, from the low 20's to the 80's to 90's, while reducing the aqueous effluent which usually include black liquor. The research will include laboratory studies at the NRC, large scale testing at a paper company (RAKTA) in Egypt, as well as at the US laboratory at NCSU. Scope: This research project will involve a US scientist from a highly regarded department, with a strong research program, and a senior researcher in the area of paper and pulp at Egypt's largest research laboratory, as well as one of Egypt's largest industrial concerns. These three groups will have complementary research facilities, and should be able to produce the results described above. The problem they are seeking to address is quite significant for many developing countries, especially where forest resources are few or non-existent, such as in Egypt and many countries in the Middle East. It is also important to the US where the use of agricultural waste is quite desirable to limit the use of the nation's forest resources. The work in this project will seek to reduce the resulting pollution from this generally polluting industry which utilizes chemicals for dissolving and polishing paper products. The collaborating scientists plan to do laboratory work, to be later scaled up to manufacturing conditions. This proposal meets INT objective of supporting U.S.-foreign collaboration in areas of mutual benefit. This project is being supported under the US-Egypt Joint Fund Program, which provides grants to scientists and engineers in both countries to carry out these cooperative activities.
