1.

BACKGROUND

Malaysia is one of the country in the world that has large production of paper in scale. In 2014,
Malaysia is at the rank 38 in pulp and paper production. In 2013, total pulp that was being
produced is 2.063 million, making the paper per capita consumption is 110.00 kg per year.
CEPI (Confederation of European Paper Industries) predicted the amount world consumption of
pulp is 233 million/ton in 2015 with 1.8% growth per year and the total paper production is 458
million/ton per year with growth 2.9% per year. This statistic clearly shows how Malaysia still
have stand a chance to get involved in the world pulp and paper production market.
Fiber plant, either from wood or non-wood material is the basic raw material in pulp production.
Wood has variety of chemical substance that can be divided into four main category: cellulose,
hemicellulose, lignin and extractive. During the pulp production, the extraction of cellulose and
hemicellulose will be maximized while lignin and extractive will be removed from the wood
material. Wood chemical composition depends on its type. Generally, all hardwood contained
more hemicellulose from softwood [Mimms, 1993.]
Sugarcane, or sugar cane, is one of the several species of tall perennial true grasses of the genus
Saccharum, tribe Andropogoneae, native to the warm temperate to tropical regions of South
Asia, Melanesia, and used for sugar production. It has stout jointed fibrous stalks that are rich in
the sugar sucrose, which accumulates in the stalk internodes. The plant is two to six meters (6 to
19 feet) tall. All sugar cane species interbreed and the major commercial cultivars are complex
hybrids. Sugarcane belongs to the grass family Poaceae, an economically important seed plant
family that includes maize, wheat, rice, and sorghum and many forage crops.
Sugarcane is the world's largest crop by production quantity. In 2012, The Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates it was cultivated on about 26.0 million
hectares, in more than 90 countries, with a worldwide harvest of 1.83 billion tons. Brazil was the
largest producer of sugar cane in the world. The next five major producers, in decreasing
amounts of production, were India, China, Thailand, Pakistan and Mexico.

Sugarcane yields have increased steadily over the years. They rose from 40 tonnes per hectare in
1980 to 65 tonnes per hectare in 1990 and reached 68 tonnes per hectare in 1996. The increase in
yields can be attributed to the planting of improved varieties and greater input use. There are
some annual FLUCTUATIONS, but in recent years yields have remained relatively constant.
Differences in yields also exist between plantations and smallholders with the latter's yields
averaging generally around 40 tonnes per hectare owing to reduced access to irrigation water.
Production of sugarcane generally ranges between 1.3 to 1.6 million tonnes annually depending
largely on yields. Sugar content has been around 7 percent. The harvest takes place between
January and April. Labour availability for harvesting is a serious problem for the industry
because of increasing employment in the country's manufacturing sector. As the domestic
producing area is near the border with Thailand, the sugar industry has come to depend heavily
on labour from this country, particularly during the harvesting season. If the harvest is delayed,
(e.g. by extended rain) into May or June, labour shortages develop as these workers begin to
return home to plant paddy rice in southern Thailand. Because of labour constraints, the industry
is planning a gradual shift to mechanical harvesting. [Fiji, FAO Asia Pasific Sugar Conference]
Raw material had always hold a vital role in the efficiency in lignocellulose material for pulp and
paper because for its specific characteristic, such as physical chemistry and different fiber
morphology. Every raw material is unique on its way and have different composition. The quality
of a sheet of paper that has being produced is being influenced from the raw material
characteristics, especially in type of weight, fiber dimension and its chemical composition.
The raw material chemical composition will be affected when a physical or chemical contact
being made to them.
The chemical components of raw materials such as effect on consumption cooking fibrillation,
chemicals penetration, density effect, and the cooking process pulp and fiber morphology will
affect the quality of ties between fiber and fibrillation. [Widya F.dan Euis H., 2008].
Bagasse owned a high potential to be raw material for pulp and paper, and thus this idea had lead
us to this innovation.

The waste of sugarcane is called bagasse. Bagasse (/bs/ b-gas) is the fibrous matter that
remains after sugarcane or sorghum stalks are crushed to extract their juice. The dry pulpy
residue left after the extraction of juice from sugar cane. Since the bagasse can turned into pulp,
we decided to convert bagasse to paper.

2.0

METHODOLOGY
1. Material

The raw material of this bagasse paper is bagasse (S. Officinarum) that has being obtained from
Parit Raja, Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia. The bagasse which is mainly composed by parenchyma
cells contained very few cellulosic fibre (15%) and it was being removed before pulping the
bagasse. The moisture content of the bagasse was at 10% and its chemical composition as
follows: 41.5% cellulose, 19.6% lignin, 28.4% pentosane, 2.9% ash, and 1.3% silicon (this is
based on the dry matter).
Other material that is required is 12 pages of newsprint. These newsprint is obtained from our old
stocks at home from buying newspapers. These newspapers are composed mainly 98% of
organic material, and its majorly made from lignin.
2. Preparation of raw material
We had been using bagasse as raw material to process pulp and thus paper. The bagasse has been
shredded finely and has being immersed in water overnight. We also used newspapers, as the
binder that will bind the bagasse fibre together. This newspaper also had been immersed in water
for overnight.

3.0

PROCESS

The process is being divided into two parts which is pulp production and the paper production.
1. Pulp Production
1.1 Cooking
The process began by cooking. The energy that is used here is steam. The fibers then will be
reduced through this process. The process will take 3-5 minutes time.
1.2 Washing the pulp
After being cooked, the leftover of the bagasse is being called pulp. The pulp is black in colour.
The pulp is then being washed by water to remove the black color as we want a clearer surface of
the paper.
1.3 Pulp screening and filtering
Other matters that exist in the pulp had been removed, such as sand or gravels.

Figure 1: Pulp production flowchart.

2. Paper Production
Fig

Stock
preparati
on
Press
Section

Wet end

Formatio
n

Drying
section

Cutting &
Wrapping

ure 2: Paper production.

The shredded bagasse and the newspaper is being blended together with the ratio 1:1. Water is
being added in ratio 0.5 to the bagasse and newspaper. The water is not kept constant here as the
amount of water will not give effect as the water will be drained out during the final production
of the bagasse paper. The blended bagasse and newspaper will resulting in a paste. The paste is
then being transferred to the mold to get the paper. The shape of the paper will be determined
during the molding process as well as the thickness of the paper. Since this is the prototype, we
had made the thickness of the paper to be as thin as it can be, so that it can dry faster under the
scorching sun. The bagasse paper also had been molded as the standard size and thickness of A4
paper that is available in market to compare its physical chemistry.
The mold then will be placed under the Sun to dry the water inside the paste.
The dried paper is being tested by using easy testing process to compare its characteristic with
the common paper.

4.0

WHY WE CHOOSE BAGASSE

1. Abundance of bagasse

The worldwide production of bagasse in 2005 was 54 million dry tons. 1000 kg of raw sugar
cane produces 280 kg of bagasse. The abundance of bagasse all around the country and its
availability had made us to choose to do this project. Furthermore, bagasse initially does not
have economical value and being considered as waste material. We had decided to
commercialize bagasse and transformed it into a product.
2. The demand in paper production industry
The paper consumption per capita for Malaysians are increasing by year. This shows how
prominent of utilizing paper in the daily life. We cannot keep removing the forest in order to
produce pulp and paper. This bagasse material can be a substitute in paper production.
3. Low cost
The bagasse is cheap and, to be more accurate, it is free to obtain since it is a waste material. The
cost of producing paper can be reduced tremendously and this can lead to higher amount of paper
can be produced by year without increasing its cost.
4. Simple process.
The production of paper from bagasse also is simple and does not require high-technology
facilities. Since it has the cellulose that we required in paper production industry, there is no
additional chemical substance that is required to produce the paper.

5. Low carbon footprint and storage

Bagasse also has lower carbon footprint than the normal paper. This caused less pollution when
the paper is being burned. Higher emission of Carbon Dioxide from burning the paper that is
produced from the hardwood can caused many adverse effect such as global warming. Global
warming is caused by the heat that is being trapped in the Earths atmosphere due to large
emission of carbon dioxide. This kind of problem can be avoided when using the paper that is
made from bagasse. For the sugarcane bagasse paper, the raw material is sugarcane bagasse
waste. Sugarcane captures carbon dioxide in the air and through photosynthesis, produces
oxygen and stores carbon in the body. Unless the product or waste is burned, and carbon can be
stored. This carbon storage characteristic can slow down global warming.
6. Recyclability
For the sugarcane bagasse paper, the paper can be easily recycled just like traditional wood fiber
paper. Since there is no any unrecyclable chemical or material added to strengthen the paper, the
paper can be recycled with normal wood fiber paper. Therefore, no extra environmental risk will
be involved to implement any change or improvement on the current paper recycling process. In
addition, the sugarcane bagasse paper can be recycled for three or four times.[TreeFrog] This can
further reduce the environmental impact.

SPECIFICATION
The size and dimension of bagasse paper is as follow:
Width: 21.0 cm
Length: 29.7 cm
Thickness: 140 g/m-2
Weight: 150g

Normal A4 Paper (Paper from hardwood):

Width: 21.0 cm
Length: 29.7 cm
Thickness: 80/120 g/m-2
Weight: 80g

5.0

ROUGH SKETCH OF THE PRODUCT

10

6.0

POTENTIAL LOCATION

Bagasse can be obtained widely. Malaysia is one of the largest country that produce sugarcane in
the world. The sugar industry in Malaysia is characterized by rapidly increasing direct domestic
consumption supported by an equally fast growing food processing industry, and on the supply
side by a small domestic production base that is unlikely to expand. To meet the growth in
demand, imports have expanded steadily to record levels in recent years. With excess refining
capacity, some of the imports of raw cane sugar are refined and re-exported to regional markets.
This leads to higher plantation of sugarcane in Malaysia.
The production of sugarcane is concentrated in the Northwest extremity of peninsular Malaysia
in the states of Perlis and Kedah. This area has a distinct dry season needed for cost-efficient
sugarcane production. Plantings in the states of Perak and Negeri Sembilan were unsuccessful
due to high unit costs as producing conditions were less suitable. Areas for potential expansion
have been identified in the state of Johore and in Sarawak, but no projects have yet been
undertaken.
In recent years the sugarcane harvested area has averaged between 20 000 and 24 000 hectares.
Most of the cane areas is under the management of three sugarcane plantations, two in the State
of Perlis and one in the state of Kedah, with smallholders contributing only about 15 percent of
the total. The lack of growth in cane areas largely reflects the higher remuneration received by
farmers for other crops, especially oil palm. Over the past 20 years while the sugarcane area has
remained at around 20 000 hectares, that planted to oil palm has expanded from 600 000 hectares
to 2.2 million hectares. Other leading crops in TERMS of planted areas are rubber with 1.8
million hectares, rice with 670 000 hectares and cocoa with 380 000 hectares.
The higher plantation of sugarcane will resulting higher amount of bagasse to be produced per
year. Thus, raw material for bagasse paper will not depleted and it can last for longer period of
time. The bagasse paper also acts as normal fiber papers, meaning it can be recycle after has been
used.

11

There are abundance of bagasse all around Malaysia due to many hawkers who set up the stall to
sell sugarcane juice. We even get this raw material from a hawker who set up a sugarcane juice
stall located at Parit Raja, Batu Pahat, Johor.
The raw material of bagasse will not become a problem since there are abundance and its
availability all around the country. Plus, bagasse is not a season-harvested plant. It can be planted
any time.

12

7.0

ESTIMATION OF COST

The material that has been used throughout execution of this product are as follow:
Material
Bagasse
Newsprint
Total

Cost (RM)
0
0
0

There is no cost that has been spend throughout the production of this paper.

8.0

WARRANTIES

This paper resembles a normal paper a lot. The only difference that its own is the type of raw
material that has been processed to produce this paper. This paper has the same warranties as the
normal paper, meaning that it will stay its own shape until you tear it down.

9.0

POTENTIAL PROBLEM, IMPACTS AND REMEDIES

13

PROBLEM

IMPACTS

REMEDIES

The paper will have rough

The bagasse paper cannot be use

The bagasse is shredded as fine

surface

for writing or printing properties

as it can be. The bagasse then be

blended for a long time to ensure

The humid and raining day

The paper will not able to dry in

the paste has been smooth

The bagasse paste can be dried

a fast time. It will be very fragile by using two ways. First by

and easily to tear.

baking it in an oven at suitable

temperature. Second, place a dry
thin cloth on the paper and
ironed it at high temperature.
The heat from the oven or the
iron will dried out the water
inside the paste and the paper

There is no newsprint to be

The bagasse paper will become

will be ready in a shorter time

The bagasse can be blended with

blended together with the paper.

harder but brittle in physical

a normal paper. The strength

structure. It can tear down very

may not equal to the normal

easy.

paper but it is better than

The paper is black in color and it People will not have interest in
is not attractive

blending the bagasse alone.

Use bleach at the end of the

buying this paper. The paper will mold process. Bleaching such as
not have commercial value.

Clorox brand can be used.

Adding a bleach at the end
process will resulting paper in a

There is no other commercial

The bagasse paper is not fancy

brighter and fairer color.

The paper can be converted to

value of the bagasse paper

by many people.

other stationary material such as

besides the paper itself.

The paper does not have smooth

The paper will decrease in

book and hard cover.

Use scissors or knife to produce

edges after being taken out from

artistic value.

a smooth edges.

the mold.

14

10.0

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT (LCA)

LCA is the assessment of the environmental impacts of a given product or process throughout its
lifespan. Life cycle of a product include four main stages; production stage, manufacturing stage,
use stage and end-of-life stage. The environmental evaluation using the LCA approach is done by

15

applying four steps; defining the goal and scope of the study, establishing a Life Cycle Inventory
(LCI), Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) and finally interpretation of environmental burden
associated with the product.
Goal and scope definition
The goals of the LCA study are to:
i. Evaluate the environmental performance of paper manufacturing process, and
ii. Identify inputs that have environmental potential from the paper manufacturing.
Scopes of the LCA study

System boundary

In this study, the A4 size paper commonly used for writing, printing and copying a document was
chosen as an assessing subject in the life cycle assessment. The life cycle of an A4 paper which
starts from the raw material extraction stage, production stage, use stage and end-up at the
disposal stage. However, the system boundary of the study only focused on the paper production
stage. In general, the three stages of paper production are: preparation of non-virgin materials,
pulp mill and paper mill process.

Functional unit

The Functional Unit was set as the production of one metric tons of paper for one year.

Assumption

In the LCA study, the following assumptions were made:

There were no wastes or emissions to air and water nor by-products during paper production
process and the transportation from each stage is not taken into account because of lack data.

Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) method

The methodology used to develop this research data collection. Several approaches were used for
data collection for this study, which are as follow:

16

Data collection: By reading journal papers and Internet research.

Life Cycle of Paper and System Boundary

11.0

EVALUATION TEST
Wood-based paper

Comparison

17

Bagasse paper

Low in strength

Strength.

High

This test is conducted by tearing

both paper, and compared which
paper tear faster.
Flexibility

High flexibility

Low

This test is conducted by folding

and rolling the paper into another
shape. The paper who stay in the
shape does not have high
Lighter. The mass of the paper is

flexibility.
Mass of the paper.

Heavier due to the raw material,

only around 80g/120g

The paper is weighed

bagasse which is being used

Smooth surface. Writing-friendly

accordingly.
The roughness of the paper

Rough surface. Less writing

surface.

friendly.

Each paper is tested to see which

surfaces is more smooth and
hence writing-friendly
Interaction with water.

Easy being tear up.

Harder.

The paper is tested its durability

when being soaked into the water.
Since we are lacking in research and also resource, the following evaluation test is done to
compare the normal wood paper and the bagasse paper. This test majorly compared the physical
properties of both papers.

12.0

DEFINITION OF SUCCESS

When we are producing this paper, we had neglected other factors, such as its roughness or its
writing-friendly characteristic. Our main goal is to produce a paper by using bagasse, which is a
waste material. Producing a paper is not an easy task, and hence its required many high

18

technology facilities to produce a flawless paper. The concept of this project is mainly to produce
a paper, and we believe we had achieved it.
Our paper is the prototype of paper that can be produced by using bagasse and newspaper. With
our creativity and innovation, the paper production company in Malaysia will have the idea to
produce a paper from this waste material, and hence reduce the deforestation. Deforestation is
one of the most vital activities in obtaining the raw material to produce pulp and paper in
Malaysia. By introducing a new brand raw material from the waste, the deforestation activities
can be minimized as well.
We had set our goals to:
1. To commercialize bagasse into a product.
2. To reduce the use of wood to make papers.
3. To produce a paper from a new raw material and hence becoming not too dependent on
the forest resources.
4. To minimize the deforestation activities and hence minimizing the global warming
problem, flash flood and heat island in Malaysia.
5. To help Malaysia to stand a chance in becoming a part of the world paper production.
6. To help the Malaysias economy to a better standard, by becoming one of the worlds
paper production dealer.
The goals are being set so that we know what is our vision and mission upon producing this
paper. This paper is might be simple in term of procedure and lacking in vision, but in a greater
scale of its production, it will help to save the trees.

Success checklist:
Success parameter
1. To commercialize

Yes

bagasse into a
product.
2. To reduce the use of
wood to make papers.
19

No

3. To produce a paper
from a new raw
material and hence
becoming not too
dependent on the
forest resources.
4. To minimize the
deforestation
activities and hence
minimizing the global
warming problem,
flash flood and heat
island in Malaysia.
5. To help the
Malaysias economy
to a better standard,
by becoming one of
the worlds paper
production dealer.
As all the mentioned items had been achieved, we believe that we had executed our project
successfully in this level. A greater achievement can be achieve later when we had the enough
resource or research paper to produce a better and smoother papers.
13.0

BAGASSE PAPERS BENEFIT COMPARED TO PAPER FROM TREE

1. ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
The environmental aspect on paper production is significant. With the modern technology, paper
can be produced with more sustainable materials rather than wood fiber. In this section, the
investigation on environmental impact of producing wheat straw and sugarcane fiber paper will
be discussed.
i.

Carbon Footprint

20

Carbon footprint refers to the amount of carbon dioxide being emitted by an activity, in this
scenario, due to the production of paper.
The data of the exact carbon footprint cannot be found, but due to the idea of using the waste of
sugarcane that helps to reduce the pollution due to disposal of sugarcane, the relatively carbon
footprint is lower than the wheat fibre paper.
ii.

Carbon Storage

For the sugarcane bagasse paper, the raw material is sugarcane bagasse waste. Sugarcane
captures carbon dioxide in the air and through photosynthesis, produces oxygen and stores
carbon in the body. Unless the product or waste is burned, and carbon can be stored. This carbon
storage characteristic can slow down global warming. However, the only part of sugarcane that is
used to produce paper is the bagasse waste. Most part of the sugarcane is extracted to produce
food products or bio-fuel. Carbon stored in bio-fuels may later be released back to the
atmosphere.
iii.

Recyclability

For the sugarcane bagasse paper, the paper can be easily recycled just like traditional wood fiber
paper. Since there is no any unrecyclable chemical or material added to strengthen the paper, the
paper can be recycled with normal wood fiber paper. Therefore, no extra environmental risk will
be involved to implement any change or improvement on the current paper recycling process. In
addition, the sugarcane bagasse paper can be recycled for three or four times.This can further
reduce the environmental impact.
2. ECONOMICAL ASSESSMENT
i.

Consumer Price
Since bagasse paper is made from waste material, the production cost can be cut tremendously.
The reducing cost starting from the production can leads to reduction in consumer price. Bagasse
paper can be sell at lower price than the wood fiber paper.

ii.

Transportation

21

Given that sugar-cane paper is being harvested in the country, the cost of transporting sugar-cane
paper purchased in bulk would be significantly smaller than the transportation costs of hard
wood purchased in bulk.
Also since sugar cane is compressible and flexible, this would make the transportation of sugar
cane more efficient and less costly, thus reducing the overall transportation costs for bagasse to
paper manufacturing factories to retail stores.

iii.

Economic Development and Job Creation

By harvesting sugarcane in greater scale such as in Perlis, we will be creating more job
opportunities in Perlis or any area that harvest sugarcane. This is due to the increased demand for
sugar-cane paper. Through creating more job opportunities in Malaysia we will not only be
benefiting Perliss economy, but also the Global economy.

14.0 CONCLUSION
After conducting few simple test on the bagasse, we can safely concluded that the bagasse paper
had hit it mark in becoming one of the substitution raw material to produce paper. Bagasse paper
can be produce to substitute hard wood paper, which the way the raw material is being obtained
by deforestation. Deforestation can lead to many other adverse effects such as flash flood, global
warming and heat island phenomenon.
The bagasse paper itself also has few advantages compared to the normal fiber papers. The
production of bagasse paper can save money and tree. It also possessed recyclability property,
which make it is convenient and eco-friendly. The raw material to produce bagasse paper also

22

will not be depleted since Malaysia is one of the country that produce largest amount of
sugarcane per year due to sugar demand.
The bagasse paper also has the same characteristic as the same normal hard wood paper. The
simple process in producing paper also make its more favorable than the normal paper.
Based on the few examples that we had pinpointed above, we agreed that this bagasse paper is
one of the innovation that can lead to many positive impacts in future.
The irony of slogan, Human is a weird creature. They cut down trees to make paper, and they
wrote Save the trees on the paper no longer justified in this case.

15.0

RECOMMENDATION

There are few recommendation that can be considered that will give improvement in producing
higher quality of paper in future.
1) Few researches need to be conduct to know the chemical substance that can enhance
the quality of bagasse paper. Experiments or well-advanced tests need to be
conducted on the paper to know its chemical characteristic.
2) The paper need to blend together with the newsprint by using well-advanced blender
than can blend them into much smaller paste. The paper produced then will have
smoother structure.
3) A rigid and well structure mold need to be built to produce a paper that is smoother
and neater.
4) The paste is not being dried onto a cupboard paper, but instead glass or steel to
increase the heat absorption into the paste, turning it into a higher quality of paper.

23

5) Another selection of bleach instead of brand Clorox can be used to produce different
end result. I
6) The paste that is made can be dyed with artificial coloring to produce colored paper.

16.0

APPENDIX

Pulp production:

Fig 3: Bagasse that has been shredded finely.

Fig 4: Newspaper that has been

soaked overnight.

24

Figure 5: Newspaper after being soaked 24 hours.

Figure 6 : Bagasse being transferred

into a pot.

Figure 7: Bagasse being cooked on a stove

Figure 8: Blender that is being used.

25

Figure 9: Bagasse and newsprint being blended.

26

Figure 10: Blended bagasse and newsprint.

Figure 11: Bleaching agent

Figure 12: The mold is being dried.

27

Final product: Bagasse paper (1)

Final product: Bagasse paper (2)

17.0 REFERENCES
28

1. Malaysian Newsprint Industries (2007). Paper Recycling Report.

http://www.newsprint.com.my
2. Dias A C, Arroja L, Capela I(2007). Life Cycle Assessment of Printing and Writing Paper
Produced in Portugal. Int J of LCA, 12(7).521-528.
3. Eriksson E, Gilespie A R, Gustavsson L, Langvall O, Olsson M, Sathre R (2007).
Integrated Carbon Analysis of Forest Management Practices and Wood Substitution. J
of Forest Resource, 36.671-681
4. Villanueva A, Wenzel H (2007). Paper Waste-Recycling, Incineration or Landfilling? A
Review of Existing Life Cycle Assessments. J of Waste Management ,27,29-46.
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagasse (Wikipedia, 2015)
6. Rainey, Thomas J (2009). A study of the permeability and compressibility properties of
bagasse pulp. Brisbane, Australia: Queensland University of Technology

29