The papermaking potential of bleached kraft pulps made from hemp stalks, hemp woody-core and hemp bast fibres was studied and compared with that of bleached birch pulp and pine kraft pulp. It has been shown that among the pulps from these raw materials, hemp stalk pulp has the most useful properties for papermaking. The disadvantages of hemp woody-core pulp and hemp bast fibre pulp as papermaking intermediates proved to be low tear resistance and low tensile strength, respectively. Results indicate that the main reasons for the low tensile strength of hemp bast fibre pulp are the low susceptibility of their fibres for internal fibrillation and low hemicellulose content. The technology used in this work for the processing of hemp bast fibres into papermaking pulp made it possible to obtain pulp with high α-cellulose content from this fibrous raw material with a high yield in a much simpler way than when such pulps are obtained from wood.

There is a need to find an effective and durable method for disinfecting historical objects made from natural fibres, paper, leather, and wood that does not cause these materials to degrade. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of nanosilver misting disinfection of above–mentioned materials on the reduction of the number of microorganisms: A. niger, B. subtilis, E. coli and S. aureus. In addition, the objective was to examine the changes in mechanical and optical properties of tested materials occurring during the disinfection and accelerated ageing process. The results show that nanosilver misting — provided silver content in materials were equal to 1.2–7.0 ppm is an effective method for protecting all tested materials against A. niger, B. subtilis, E. coli and S. aureus. The highest reduction of microorganisms was obtained in the case of paper and textile disinfection. The established sensitivity of microorganisms was as follows: A. niger >E. coli >S. aureus >B. subtilis. The presence of nanosilver in the materials does not result in a significant deterioration of their mechanical and optical properties during an accelerated light ageing process (equivalent to about 24 years of museum exposure). Based on the results obtained in this study, it can be stated that the nanosilver misting method may have potential beneficial use in the preservation of historical objects.

The weight share of the pith, nodes and internodes in the stalks of Miscanthus, as well as the types of cells in these anatomical parts, were examined. Studies have shown that the pith contains mainly parenchyma cells, nodes—short fibres and palisade parenchyma cells, while internodes contains mainly fibres, which are accompanied by a certain amount of vessels and parenchyma cells. Then the whole stalks of Miscanthus were subjected to pulping using the kraft and soda pulping methods. These studies have shown that hard, regular, soft and very soft kraft pulps can be obtained using a lower amount of active alkali, with comparable or higher screened yield of pulp than is the case of pulping of birch. Furthermore, it was found that the content of knots and shives was lower in the digester hard and regular kraft pulps from Miscanthus compared to birch kraft pulp. Of the two pulping methods studied, kraft pulping gives better results than soda pulping concerning the considerably higher yield of pulp.

Selected Grass Plants as Biomass Fuels and Raw Materials for Papermaking, Part II. Pulp and Paper Properties