Wet Strength Properties of Handsheet Paper from Empty Oil Palm Fruit Bunch Pulp by the Addition of Polyethylene Imine

Indonesia as the largest producer of crude palm oil has a largest oil palm plantation. To support the sustainability of the production, several large oil palm nursery produces around 122 million seeds per year and this amount is equivalent to the number of polybags used. Although the availability of polybags and their economics compete to other packaging materials, environmental issues provide an opportunity to replace them with strong packaging, biodegradable and resistant to water. In order to obtain the wet strength properties of handsheet paper as candidate for nursery paperbag, the empty fruit bunches (EFB) pulp was treated by the addition of wet-strength synthetic resin. Here we report the effect of polyethylene imine as a wet strength resin on the wet strength properties of handsheet paper made from biomass of empty fruit bunches (EFB). The EFB pulp was obtained by Gimmick-Masher technology. The beating pulp at 330-350 mL CSF is made into handsheet of 125 g/m2. The additive chemicals, internal sizing agent, cationic retention aid, and cationic dry strength were added to pulp. As a wet strength agen, polyethylene imine (PEI) was added to the pulp stock at 0, 1, 2, and 3 %. The physical and strength tests showed that the addition of PEI significantly increase the wet tensile strength, tear resistance and crack resistance, and it showed the wet/dry tensile ratio is 14.79%.