Chapter 2058: Bagasse papermaking?

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Tara’s sugar ship brought back 200 tons of cane sugar. At the same time, he also brought back a few tons of paper, which he said was dedicated to Marin to see if it could be of great use.

"Damn it, Cuba produces paper?" Marin helped his forehead, it seemed that it was not impossible. Cuba, after all, is full of wood. But the problem is that there is no coal in Cuba. Is it possible to burn wood to cook wood? What a waste...

You know, now in European countries, the centuries-old oak has become a controlled thing, and civilians cannot cut it at will. On the Cuban side, if you burn wood and boil pulp... it’s not right. Cuba’s side is now a place full of virgin forests, and there is no shortage of wood...

But when he got the paper, Marin found out that it was wrong—the paper looked rough, but it was thick...

"This...a bit like kraft paper..."

Kraft paper is very thick, thick paper like cowhide. Generally, kraft paper is used to make packaging paper bags. For example, kraft paper used for cement bags.

Sure enough, Tara said in the instructions attached to the letter that this kind of kraft paper can be used to make packaging bags. It can also be sent to Newfoundland, where it is soaked in whale oil and processed into moisture-proof kraft paper, which is used as a packaging bag for important materials.

Of course, none of this can surprise Marin. What surprised Marin most was that Tara explained that these kraft papers are made from bagasse!

Bagasse papermaking? It's a bit high-end...

It seems that later generations of Marin have indeed heard of the use of bagasse to make paper. It is said that it is conducive to environmental protection. After all, bagasse is not easily degraded and difficult to be used as a green fertilizer. The main reason is that bagasse is mainly cellulose, which is not easy to be degraded and digested, and the degradation rate is relatively slow. As people of later generations often say, fiber vegetables are difficult to absorb and digest, but they tend to feel full.

In later generations, bagasse is easy to solve. It's hard to decompose, right? I use a grinder to completely crush it into powder, which is easily degraded into biological fertilizer.

But in this era, there is no high-speed crusher, and the fiber of bagasse is best not to be littered. As a fuel incineration, it has become a good choice. The grass ash obtained after burning is actually a good green manure.

Originally, the sugarcane and bagasse of the Cuban colonies were also burned as firewood. But all this changed after a craftsman arrived...

The craftsman's name was Keller, and he was a German. Originally, Keller was a paper craftsman in a paper mill on Cape Breton Island. But more than a year ago, a work accident caused Keller to break his right leg. After his disability, Keller could no longer work at the Cape Breton Island Paper Mill. Originally, he wanted to go back to his hometown of Cologne, but Garland, the Governor of Cape Breton Island, disagreed. After all, Cologne is the chassis of the Archbishopric of Cologne. What if Keller goes back and leaks the Beihai country's technology of making paper with wood?

It just so happened that Keller’s son Keller (both father and son have the same name) was taken by Tara to work as a sugarcane plantation in the Cuban colony of Havana. Therefore, Old Keller simply went to his son's place to take care of the elderly.

After arriving at the Cuban sugar cane plantation, Keller also had a leisurely old age at first. But after that, it was unsound.

Why? Because no one plays with him!

It would be at ease if a bunch of retired old men and women played together like later generations. But what is Cuba? That is a colony that has only been developed for more than ten years. Most of the people who came were young people, and almost no old people. Therefore, old Keller can only see his son after leaving work every night.

Because of loneliness, Old Keller simply wandered around on crutches. Just in time, he saw the slaves drying the bagasse. When I asked, he said it was going to be dried for firewood.

But old Keller, the paper craftsman, was guilty of an occupational disease. He twisted the bagasse with his hands and found that it was all fiber.

"Maybe... it can be used to make paper..."

Do whatever it takes, plus his son Keller is the steward of that plantation, and his rights are not small. Then, Old Keller took the black slaves arranged for him by his son, and started the research of making paper with bagasse.

He first asked the blacksmith to help him build an iron pot with a sealed lid. Then, use the Egyptian Glauber's salt, mix it with the bagasse and put it in an airtight iron pot and cook it vigorously.

After the pulping was completed, he copied it himself. Then, finally got the paper.

But it is a pity that the first batch of paper seems to have poor toughness and break easily. Pull it lightly and it will be disconnected...

Old Keller was very unwilling and began to observe the bagasse. After a long time, he discovered that the fibers of bagasse were long and short. The long one is suitable for papermaking, the short one is not suitable. Even if it is made, it is easy to break.

In order to prove the conjecture, he separated the long and short fibers in the bagasse and cooked them separately to make paper. Then, as he guessed, the paper made of short fibers was very easy to break. The long-fiber paper has a lot stronger toughness. However, it is still worse than paper made from wood pulp. After the comparison, Old Keller found that it seemed that the long fibers in bagasse were also a bit shorter than ordinary wood pulp fibers...

Then, Old Keller thought of a way-simply, I used the long fibers in the bagasse to make thick kraft paper. In this way, the problem of shorter fibers is concealed by the thick structure...

In the end, the kraft paper made by Keller was of qualified quality. The most important thing is-low cost!

You know, in Cuba, bagasse is the garbage that can be found everywhere, and it is used as a kind of grass burn. How much bagasse is there? It accounts for about a quarter of the weight of sugarcane. In other words, one ton of sugarcane is about 250 kilograms of bagasse.

After using manure, the yield of sugar cane per mu in Cuba is about 2 tons. In other words, one mu of land can produce 500 kg of bagasse, which is a thousand catties!

Of course, there are less than half of the long fibers suitable for papermaking. The old Keller used wet screening, and could only screen out 30% of the longer fibers.

But even so, one thousand catties of bagasse per acre of land can filter out three hundred catties of long fiber. Cuba has already cultivated 100,000 mu of sugarcane land. In addition, another 100,000 mu is being cultivated and planted.

In this way, even if only 30% of the bagasse can be used, 100,000 mu of sugarcane land can get 30 million catties, or 33 million pounds! If it can make kraft paper, you can get 24.75 million pounds of kraft paper at a 25% discount! With so much paper, the entire Beihai country can't use it to make paper bags!

The remaining 70% of the bagasse is not waste. After being dried, it can be used as fuel to help boil sugarcane juice and extract cane sugar. It can also be used to cook pulp and help papermaking. It can be said that there is no waste!

Of course, limited by manpower, it is impossible to screen all the bagasse in Cuba and make kraft paper. However, it is still possible to take out a considerable part.

Old Keller's invention attracted Tara's attention. Why? Because Tara also wants to do meritorious service to earn performance!

He is not very good in this place in Cuba. Before planting sugar cane, planting tea trees, planting rice and fruits, they all followed Marin's instructions, and there was nothing he showed.

Now, under his rule, there are good projects that Marin did not expect. He is naturally willing to strongly support him, so as to show the wiseness and wisdom of the governor.

Then, a batch of kraft paper made from bagasse was sent back to the mainland along with the cane sugar and sent to Ma Lin Yulan.

Sure enough, Marin was very happy after he personally used the paper made from bagasse. After all, it is really wasteful to make good pulp from the wood on Cape Breton Island into kraft paper. There is no waste in making kraft paper from bagasse.

However, kraft paper alone is not moisture-proof. Therefore, some of the kraft paper made from Cuban bagasse is sent to Newfoundland, where it is soaked in whale oil and processed into moisture-proof kraft oil paper. Then, it can be applied to various packaging bags.

For old Keller's innovative behavior, Marin did not hesitate to reward him with a thousand gold coins. Moreover, in order to show his generosity, Marin also bestowed the title of nobleman for life on Keller. Of course, it is not from the Grand Duchy of the North Sea, but from the Kingdom of America. After all, Cuba is within the scope of the United States...

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