News Coatings Technologies

Ecologically beneficial reuse of rice straw

During a new study, rice straw was first converted into a paperboard which was then coated with a coating based on cellulose nano-fibrils extracted from the rice straw.

Bio-based coatings Sustainability
Rice in a field as a symbolic image.
The research proves that the best antifouling performance is achieved with an epoxy-polydimethylsiloxane coating containing 5 wt% of the new filler, which exhibits low surface energy and low adhesion strength. Image source: westhyhy0 - Pixabay (symbol image).

Rice straw is openly burnt in the farms in parts of India as it is not efficiently used as compost or cattle feed. In a new work, a unique approach was used in an attempt to utilise the rice straw grown in the Indian state of Haryana. It was converted into a paperboard of 200 g/m2 and was coated with up to 10 g/m2 cellulose nano-fibrils (CNF) extracted from the rice straw.

Improves properties of the paperboard

Various properties of the coated paperboard were tested and it was found that the coating played a great role toward reducing Bendtsen roughness, water absorption, and porosity; while improving water vapor barrier and grease-resistance.

The study has been published in Progress in Organic Coatings, Volume 165, April 2022.