Application and Future Demand for Modified Starch in Paper Making Prof. Dr. Arif Karademir Papermaking industry is one of the biggest starch consumers in the world. Use of starch actually goes back to two thousand years ago when Tsua Lun firstly invented paper using fibrillated rice straws and rice starch together. Paper formation is highly wet process where almost 99% water and just at most 1% dry substances travel together over the very fast moving formation web. Papermaking is simply a filtration and drainage mechanisms so that water should be quickly removed and all dry substances such as fibres, fillers, chemicals must retained on the formation web without damaging structure, strengths and some key properties of end products. Especially cationic starch is highly used at the wet end of papermachine in order to improve first-past retention and also develop paper strength. Surface sizing of paper at size press also consumes great amount of modified starches where a continuous very thin film is created over sheets to impart water repellency and smooth surfaces. Paper coating is another important processes where tremendous amount of modified starches are used in coating mixture as binder and adhesives instead of latex. Various modified starches are also used as adhesives and glues in corrugated board, conical tube, paper honeycomb and paper bag manufacturing. The total paper consumption in the world and in Turkey are reported to be around roughly 400 million tons/year and 5,5 million tons/year today. Considering just 2% of all paperbased products are starch derivatives, then it gives 80 million tons/year world and 110.000 tons/year Turkey starch consumption capacity. Use of starch in paper industry is most likely to increase due to shortage of raw materials (plant fibres), use of more fillers, use of more recycled pulp, need for fast production and use of paperbased materials in daily life. |