Have you ever thought that cow and goat manure or elephant poop could turn into paper? Well, some Austrian researchers who recently presented their invention seem to have succeeded in this original undertaking.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himHave you ever thought that the manure cow and goat or elephant poop could turn into paper? Well, some Austrian researchers who recently presented their invention seem to have succeeded in this original undertaking.
Dung from some animals has proved to be an excellent source of pulp for paper production and could be a worthy substitute where trees are scarce. This is the opinion of some scientists who believe they have found an economical and ecological production method for paper that offers, among other things, the advantage of not wasting anything.
The new idea was born in Crete where Alexander Bismarck of the University of Vienna noticed goats eating dry grass in the small village where he was on vacation. He thus thought that that waste material, vegetable and partially digested, must necessarily contain cellulose.
As he stated:
“Animals eat low-grade biomass containing cellulose, chew it and expose it to enzymes and acids in the stomach and then produce manure. Depending on the animal, up to 40% of that manure is cellulose, which is therefore easily accessible ”.
As a result, the scientist argued, far less energy and fewer chemical treatments should be required to transform this partially digested material into cellulose nanofibers than starting from raw wood.
So he started working with his team, first on goat manure and then on horse dung, cows and finally elephants.
There is certainly no lack of raw materials, the researchers point out, parks in Africa host hundreds of elephants that produce tons of manure every day, then there are cattle farms in the United States and Europe that also produce mountains of dung.
Photo: Catherine Weiland
How poop paper is made
Manure is treated with a sodium hydroxide solution. This partially removes lignin, which can be used later as a fertilizer or fuel, as well as other impurities present in manure including proteins and dead cells. To completely remove the lignin and produce white pulp for paper making, the material must then be bleached with sodium hypochlorite.
Purified cellulose requires little or no grinding to break it down into useful nanofibers for paper preparation, in contrast to conventional methods.
The project was presented at the national meeting and exhibition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the largest scientific society in the world, and the researchers are convinced that paper made from dung can be used in many ways, for example as a reinforcement for others. compounds, in the filters for cleaning waste water and is not ruled out also to write.
Researchers are now investigating whether the process can be made even more sustainable by first producing the biogas from manure and then extracting the cellulose fibers from the residue.
If you are interested in other original ways of producing paper, read also:
- Paper from the recycling of plastic bottles
- Raw Hemp Paper: from tradition to innovation to rediscover the hemp supply chain
