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In this research the anatomical, physical and chemical characteristics of kenaf as well as
pulp properties of Plant's bark and whole stem were evaluated through the processes of soda, Soda-anthraquinone and kraft in three alkali conditions of 16% , 18% and 20%. The results show that barkless kenaf is not suitable for paper manufacturing pulp, but because of its low density, can be used in composite board, especially aucostic board industries.
Kenaf bark is much more appropriate for paper manufacturing because of having a large amount of cellulose (54%), long fibers (2.4 mm), but little amount of extractives and lignin (14%).
Pulp characteristics show that the best method for producing pulp is the Soda anthraquinone process with 18% effective alkali. In these conditions, the pulp yield is about 0.5% more than the kraft process and about 1.2% more than the Soda process.
Freeness of Soda-anthraquinone pulp was less than that of Soda pulp, the difference being insignificant because of the fact that the main factor effective in the amount of Freenss is the nature of the substance and not the nature of the process. Survey of hand made paper strength properties also revealed that strength values for papers produced from kraft pulp
process are similar to those for the paper produced from kraft pulp process of softwoods, but they show a lower tear strength.
The burst strength of papers produced from kraft pulp process of kenafwithout bark is more than that in kraft pulp process of hardwood, and their other strength properties are almost comparable.
The strength properties of papers produced from whole stems of kenaf as compared with those produced from barkless kenaf has been considerably improved, so that such properties as bursting, tearing, folding and tensile strength have had an increase of 90%, 130%, 72% and
18% respectively.