Overview

• Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology demonstrated that soda pulping can extract dissolving pulp from oat husks and wheat straw for textile use
• Oat husks and wheat straw outperformed potato and sugar beet residues in purity and yield required for viscose and lyocell production
• Unpublished trials have shown that wheat-straw pulp and press-cake from field grass can be spun into textile fibers, marking progress toward commercial scaling
• The soda pulping process avoids harsh chemicals and complex wood-pulp pretreatments by relying solely on sodium hydroxide (lye)
• Leveraging current pulp-and-paper infrastructure could enable large-volume production without new facilities, cutting environmental impact and adding value to farm waste