Kenaf [etymology: Persian],[2]Hibiscus cannabinus, is a plant in the family Malvaceae also called Deccan hemp and Java jute. Hibiscus cannabinus is in the genus Hibiscus and is native to Africa, though its exact origin is unknown.[1] The name also applies to the fibre obtained from this plant. Kenaf is one of the allied fibres of jute and shows similar characteristics.
French: chanvre de Bombay, chanvre du Deccan, chanvre de Guinée, chanvre de Gambo, chanvre de roselle, jute de Java, jute de Siam, kénaf, ketmie à feuilles de chanvre (Belgium), roselle
China: Hóng Má (红麻; red hemp); officially changed from Yáng Má (洋麻; foreign hemp) during the Cultural Revolution, 1966-1976.
Other names include Bimli, Ambary, Ambari Hemp, and Bimlipatum Jute.
According to Miyake and Suzuta (1937), there are more than 129 names for kenaf worldwide.
Characteristics
Dried kenaf stems
It is an annual or biennialherbaceous plant (rarely a short-lived perennial) growing to 1.5–3.5 m tall with a woody base. The stems are 1–2cm diameter, often but not always branched. The leaves are 10–15cm long and variable in shape; leaves near the base of the stems are deeply lobed (3 to 7 lobes) and leaves near the top of the stem are shallowly lobed or unlobed lanceolate. The flowers are 8–15cm in diameter. The flower base color can be white, yellow, or purple, and the white and yellow flowers are dark purple in the center. The fruit is a capsule 2cm in diameter and contains several seeds.
Fibre
Kenaf long fiber from the bast
The fibres in kenaf are found in the bast (bark) and core (wood). The bast constitutes 40% of the plant. "Crude fibre" separated from the bast is multi-cellular, consisting of several individual cells stuck together.[6] The individual fibre cells are about 2–6mm long and slender. The cell wall is thick (6.3μm). Kenaf fibre from bast could be gained as long as 2 meters and it becomes more widespread in polymer composite and concrete industry.[7] The kenaf fiber needs to be treated properly to remove the lignin. The tensile strength of the kenaf fiber is about 800 MPa, which makes it suitable natural fiber in engineering applications.[8] The core is about 60% of the plant and has fibre cells that are thick (≈38μm) but short (0.5mm) and thin-walled (3μm).[9]Paper pulp can be produced using the whole stem, and therefore contains both bast and core fibres. The pulp quality is similar to that of hardwood.
Kenaf plantPotted kenaf plants
Uses
Harvesting kenaf
Kenaf is cultivated for its fibre in India, Bangladesh, United States of America, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa, Vietnam, Thailand, parts of Africa, and to a small extent in southeast Europe. The stems produce two types of fibre: a coarser fibre in the outer layer (bast fibre), and a finer fibre in the core. The bast fibres are used to make ropes. Kenaf matures in 100 to 200 days. First grown in Egypt over 3000 years ago, the leaves of the kenaf plant were a component of both human and animal diets, while the bast fibre was used for bags, cordage, and the sails for Egyptian boats. This crop was not introduced into southern Europe until the early 1900s. Today, while the principal farming areas are China and India, Kenaf is also grown in countries including the US, Mexico, and Senegal.
The main uses of kenaf fibre have been rope, twine, coarse cloth (similar to that made from jute), and paper. In California, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, 3,200 acres (13km2) of kenaf were grown in 1992, most of which was used for animal bedding and feed.
Uses of kenaf fibre include engineered wood; insulation; clothing-grade cloth; soil-less potting mixes; animal bedding; packing material; and material that absorbs oil and liquids. It is also useful as cut bast fibre for blending with resins in the making of plastic composites, as a drilling fluid loss-preventive for oil drilling muds, and for a seeded hydromulch for erosion control. Kenaf can be made into various types of environmental mats, such as seeded grass mats for instant lawns and moldable mats for manufactured parts and containers. Panasonic has set up a plant in Malaysia to manufacture kenaf fibre boards and export them to Japan.
Additionally, as part of an overall effort to make vehicles more sustainable, Ford and BMW are making the material for the automobile bodies in part from kenaf. The first implementation of kenaf within a Ford vehicle was in the 2013 Ford Escape.[10] The BMW i3 uses kenaf in the black surrounds.[11]
The use of kenaf is anticipated to offset 300,000 pounds of oil-based resin per year in North America and should reduce the weight of the door bolsters by 25 percent.
Reported in 2021, Kenaf Ventures, an Israeli company, is developing and producing sustainable raw materials made from the kenaf plant (Hibiscus cannabinus) in an effort to decarbonize the construction sector without reducing product quality.[12]
Kenaf seed oil
Kenaf seeds yield an edible vegetable oil. The kenaf seed oil is also used for cosmetics, industrial lubricants and for biofuel production. Kenaf oil is high in omega polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). Kenaf seed oil contains a high percentage of linoleic acid (Omega-6) a polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA). Linoleic acid (C18:2) is the dominant PUFA, followed by oleic acid (C18:1). Alpha-linolenic acid (C18:3) is present in 2 to 4 percent.
Kenaf seed oil is 20.4% of the total seed weight, similar to that of cotton seed.[citation needed] Kenaf Edible Seed Oil Contains:
The most common process to make kenaf paper is using soda pulping before processing the obtained pulp in a paper machine.
The use of kenaf in paper production offers various environmental advantages over producing paper from trees. In 1960, the USDA surveyed more than 500 plants and selected kenaf as the most promising source of tree-free newsprint. In 1970, kenaf newsprint produced in the International Paper Company's mill in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, was successfully used by six U.S. newspapers. Printing and writing paper made from the fibrous kenaf plant has been offered in the United States since 1992. Again in 1987, a Canadian mill produced 13 rolls of kenaf newsprint which were used by four U.S. newspapers to print experimental issues. They found that kenaf newsprint[13] made for stronger, brighter and cleaner pages than standard pine paper with less detriment to the environment. Due partly to kenaf fibres being naturally whiter than tree pulp, less bleaching is required to create a brighter sheet of paper. Hydrogen peroxide, an environmentally-safe bleaching agent that does not create dioxin, has been used with much success in the bleaching of kenaf.
Various reports suggest that the energy requirements for producing pulp from kenaf are about 20 percent less than those for wood pulp, mostly due to the lower lignin content of kenaf. Many of the facilities that now process Southern pine for paper use can be converted to accommodate kenaf.[citation needed]
An area of 1-acre (4,000m2) of kenaf produces 5 to 8 tons of raw plant bast and core fibre in a single growing season. In contrast, 1-acre (4,000m2) of forest (in the US) produces approximately 1.5 to 3.5 tons of usable fibre per year. It is estimated that growing kenaf on 5,000 acres (20km2) can produce enough pulp to supply a paper plant having a capacity of 200 tons per day. Over 20 years, 1-acre (4,000m2) of farmland can produce 10 to 20 times the amount of fiber that 1-acre (4,000m2) of Southern pine can produce.[14]
As one of the world's important natural fibres, kenaf is covered by the International Year of Natural Fibres 2009. The first novel to be published using 100% kenaf paper was The Land of Debris and the Home of Alfredo by Kenn Amdahl (1997, Clearwater Publishing Company). [15]
David Brower, former Executive Director of the Sierra Club, in chapter 8 of his semi-autobiographical environmental book Let the Mountains Talk, Let the Rivers Run: A Call to Save the Earth (1995, Harper Collins), titled "Forest Revolution," advocated for kenaf paper use and explained its many advantages over wood pulp. The first edition of the book was printed on kenaf paper.
American Kenaf Society (AKS), Founded in 1997 with individuals and organizations working directly or indirectly with kenaf and kenaf-based products, plus those with environmental concerns.
CCG International (CCG), Leading International efforts to promote the use of kenaf and allied natural plant fibres.
About the Kenaf Plant, Vision Paper - Gives detailed description of kenaf plant and provides many links to kenaf industry. Pioneers in the kenaf paper industry. Produced first ever chlorine free 100% tree-free kenaf paper in 1992.
Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, Linum usitatissimum, in the family Linaceae. It is cultivated as a food and fiber crop in regions of the world with temperate climates. Textiles made from flax are known in English as linen and are traditionally used for bed sheets, underclothes, and table linen. Its oil is known as linseed oil. In addition to referring to the plant, the word "flax" may refer to the unspun fibers of the flax plant. The plant species is known only as a cultivated plant and appears to have been domesticated just once from the wild species Linum bienne, called pale flax. The plants called "flax" in New Zealand are, by contrast, members of the genus Phormium.
Papermaking is the manufacture of paper and cardboard, which are used widely for printing, writing, and packaging, among many other purposes. Today almost all paper is made using industrial machinery, while handmade paper survives as a specialized craft and a medium for artistic expression.
Pulp is a fibrous lignocellulosic material prepared by chemically, semi-chemically or mechanically producing cellulosic fibers from wood, fiber crops, waste paper, or rags. Mixed with water and other chemicals or plant-based additives, pulp is the major raw material used in papermaking and the industrial production of other paper products.
Jute is a long, rough, shiny bast fibre that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from flowering plants in the genus Corchorus, of the mallow family Malvaceae. The primary source of the fiber is Corchorus olitorius, but such fiber is considered inferior to that derived from Corchorus capsularis.
Fiber crops are field crops grown for their fibers, which are traditionally used to make paper, cloth, or rope.
Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a plant in the botanical class of Cannabis sativa cultivars grown specifically for industrial and consumable use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest growing plants on Earth. It was also one of the first plants to be spun into usable fiber 50,000 years ago. It can be refined into a variety of commercial items, including paper, rope, textiles, clothing, biodegradable plastics, paint, insulation, biofuel, food, and animal feed.
Hemp or industrial hemp is a strain of the Cannabis sativa plant grown specifically for the industrial uses of its derived products.
Jute is one of the most important natural fibers after cotton in terms of cultivation and usage. Cultivation is dependent on the climate, season, and soil.
Bast fibre is plant fibre collected from the phloem or bast surrounding the stem of certain dicotyledonous plants. It supports the conductive cells of the phloem and provides strength to the stem. Some of the economically important bast fibres are obtained from herbs cultivated in agriculture, as for instance flax, hemp, or ramie, but bast fibres from wild plants, such as stinging nettle, and trees such as lime or linden, willow, oak, wisteria, and mulberry have also been used in the past. Bast fibres are classified as soft fibres, and are flexible. Fibres from monocotyledonous plants, called "leaf fibre", are classified as hard fibres and are stiff.
In biochemistry and nutrition, a polyunsaturated fat is a fat that contains a polyunsaturated fatty acid, which is a subclass of fatty acid characterized by a backbone with two or more carbon–carbon double bonds. Some polyunsaturated fatty acids are essentials. Polyunsaturated fatty acids are precursors to and are derived from polyunsaturated fats, which include drying oils.
Fatty acid desaturases are a family of enzymes that convert saturated fatty acids into unsaturated fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids. For the common fatty acids of the C18 variety, desaturases convert stearic acid into oleic acid. Other desaturases convert oleic acid into linolenic acid, which is the precursor to alpha-linolenic acid, gamma-linolenic acid, and eicosatrienoic acid.
Tree-free paper, or tree-free newsprint, is described as an alternative to wood-pulp paper due to its raw material composition. It is claimed to be more eco-friendly when considering the product's entire life cycle.
Wood-free paper is paper created exclusively from chemical pulp rather than mechanical pulp. Chemical pulp is normally made from pulpwood, but is not considered wood as most of the lignin is removed and separated from the cellulose fibers during processing, whereas mechanical pulp retains most of its wood components and can therefore still be described as wood. Wood-free paper is not as susceptible to yellowing as paper containing mechanical pulp. Wood-free paper offers several environmental and economic benefits, including reduced deforestation, decreased energy consumption, and improved waste management. The term Wood-free paper can be rather misleading or confusing for someone unfamiliar with the papermaking process because paper is normally made from wood pulp derived from trees and shrubs. However, wood free paper does not mean that the paper in question is not made from wood pulp but it means that the lignin in the wood fiber has been removed by a chemical process.
Setralit is a technical natural fiber based on plant fibers whose property profile has been modified selectively in order to meet different industrial requirements. It was first manufactured in 1989 by Jean-Léon Spehner, an Alsatian engineer, and further developed by the German company ECCO Gleittechnik GmbH. The name “Setralit“ is derived from the French company Setral S.à.r.l. which is a subsidiary company of ECCO, where Spehner was employed at that time. Setralit was officially described first in 1990.
Engage Group is a Thailand-based producer and developer of kenaf products for use in animal feed & pet care, building materials, and industrial fibres. Kenaf is a plant native to South Asia and is characterized by a short growing cycle, high protein content, and strong fiber. The company processes and sells value-added products that are made from natural kenaf fibres, core, and leaves. By developing industrial and household products from natural fibers, the company aims to enhance local communities and the environment.
Ambadi seed oil is extracted from seeds of the ambadi plant. It is an annual or perennial plant in the family Malvaceae and related to the roselle. It is believed to be native to Africa or Tropical Asia.
Shives, also known as shoves, boon or hurd, are the wooden refuse removed during processing flax, hemp, or jute, as opposed to the fibres (tow). Shives consist of "the woody inner portion of the hemp stalk, broken into pieces and separated from the fiber in the processes of breaking and scutching" and "correspond to the shives in flax, but are coarser and usually softer in texture". Shives are a by-product of fiber production.
Hemp paper is paper varieties consisting exclusively or to a large extent from pulp obtained from fibers of industrial hemp. The products are mainly specialty papers such as cigarette paper, banknotes and technical filter papers. Compared to wood pulp, hemp pulp offers a four to five times longer fibre, a significantly lower lignin fraction as well as a higher tear resistance and tensile strength. Because the paper industry's processes have been optimized for wood as the feedstock, production costs currently are much higher than for paper from wood.
Hemp has been grown continuously in France for hundreds of years or longer for use as a textile, paper, animal bedding, and for nautical applications.
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