4. Conclusion

The study determined the technical feasibility of bamboo culms (G. scortechinii) as a non-wood fiber for pulp and paper industry. For this purpose, the biometric characteristics and chemical compositions, pulping characteristics, paper properties, projects ASAM pulped of G. scortechinii as good material for pulp and paper packaging material. The results show that the fiber length of G. scortechinii is similar to softwood and had significant effects on the properties of bamboo paper. The Runkel and flexibility ratios of G. scortechinii were in the range of spruce (softwood) with 0.86 and 50.14, respectively. Meanwhile, the chemical composition analysis of G. scortechinii presented that bamboo have a high amount of cellulose content and lowest solvent extractive content in comparison with other non-wood species. Therefore, the result showed that G. scortechinii can produce pulp and paper, which is almost comparable to other sources. It was also found that the pulp properties of bamboo often being subjected to ASAM pulping process were significantly affected (at p ≤ 0.05) by the cooking conditions. The pulp at 18% NaOH and 90 min cooking time gave low pulp yield and the tear index with values of 41.24% and 18.64 mN.m<sup>2</sup> /g, respectively. The pulp made at 16% NaOH and 90 min cooking time presented the best properties, pulp yield, Kappa number, tensile, tear and burst indices with values of 49.06%, 14.2, 20.86 Nm/g, 22 mN.m2 /g and 10.05 kPa.m2 /g, respectively.
