Most papers are made from virgin wood-based pulp of hardwood sources but recently,
softwood have received enormous attention as alternative to hard wood because the
hardwood takes a significant number of years to mature enough for use in the pulp and
paper industry unlike softwood which are majorly annual plants. The annual crop in
focus in this work is the yellow open-pollinated variety of corn which generates tons of
waste at harvest. A novel attempt is made to ascertain the viability of corn sheaths as
raw material for the pulp and paper industry by carrying out a comprehensive analysis
on the pulp and paper made from the pulp. The sheaths were dried, shred and cut into
pieces suitable for the digester and the pulps obtained were analysed for physicochemical
properties. Hand sheets were also made using the generated pulp and its
physico-mechanical properties were analysed. Results obtained were compared with
pulp from corn husks from other parts of the country, three Nigerian fibre sources – silk
cotton, bagasse and rice straw and other foreign non-wood sources and found to be of
competitive properties. Pulp properties of Lignin content, ash content, cellulose, hot and
cold water solubility of the fibres were 13.72 ± 1.21%, 1.27 ± 0.23%, 53.26 ± 1.11%,
15.20 ± 2.11 and 6.14 ± 2.43 respectively while the mechanical properties of paper from
the pulp were Bursting strength (282.163 KPa m2/g), Tear strength (146.119), Tensile
strength (257.6N/m) and Tensile Index (3.9Nm/g). It was found that in all properties,
the corn sheath was better than the rice straw fibers but not as good as the silk cotton
and bagasse fibers. However, the corn sheath has been identified, as a viable raw
material for the pulp and paper industry in Nigeria
