UAEU students take rough edges off paper made of sand
It was more than 4,000 years ago that papyrus, a thick paper-like material, was first produced in Ancient Egypt.
It depended upon what was available locally, in this case the aquatic flowering plant Cyperus papyrus.
It is appropriate, then, that a step forward in modern-day paper-making also involves the use of resources available in the area of production. In this case, students in the UAE are using sand.
A project by the students at the UAE University in Al Ain aims to produce paper without wood pulp, using sand and pellets of a polymer, a material made from repeated chemical units joined together.
Their process could offer environmental benefits because it requires less energy than traditional paper production from wood pulp. It also does not need water, an advantage in countries that face severe demands on their water resources. And it does not generate waste water.
Postgraduate student Sidra Ahmed and undergraduate Rukshana Veetil, from UAEU’s chemical engineering department, are perfecting the technique, which is inspired by Rockstock, a commercially-produced type of paper that is 80 per cent ground-down stone waste and 20 per cent polymer.
Rockstock is described as biodegradable and its production is said to require little energy and no water.
As sand is readily available in the UAE, the students came up with the idea of using it in place of rock.
“There is nowhere in the world where paper is made from sand,” Ms Ahmed said.
“The aim is to be able to create paper out of a sustainable resource, sand, which not only will save trees and reduce water consumption, but boost the economy of the country, since paper could then be created using a local natural resource.”
The idea for sand-polymer paper originated when Ms Ahmed and a group of fellow chemical engineering department students, Sara Alketbi, Sumiyya Rabbani and Hamda Almesmari, were looking for an idea to enter into a competition, Think Science.
The students are looking to overcome technical hurdles in the process they have developed, which involves making small pellets of the sand and polymer mix and rolling it.
“We are in this phase right now and while we are still figuring out some challenges, we are very hopeful,” said Ms Ahmed.
They are looking to try to bleach the sand to make lighter paper.
Aside from the environmental benefits, the method is thought to offer advantages in terms of the paper it generates.
Ms Ahmed said it was likely to be tear-resistant, durable and, thanks to the properties of the polymer, may be water-resistant.
If adopted, she said the method could help to reduce the UAE’s carbon footprint as it does not involve fossil fuel.
Professor William Sampson, a materials scientist at the University of Manchester in the UK who specialises in paper, said he thought it unlikely that non-plant materials would ever replace the cellulose as the key ingredient in paper.
Plant materials are, he said, biodegradable and easily recyclable.
However, he suggested there could be niche applications for paper-like materials made from other sources.
“I am sure there are solutions for many problems that [could use] thin film-like materials,” he said.