Abstract
In the previous study, we investigated the physical properties of new organic fillers made from major agricultural byproducts, including rice husks, peanut husks and garlic stems, and we estimated that rice husk was the best candidate for use as new organic fillers in paperboard. In this study, an organic filler prototype was produced with rice husk and the mill trials were carried out in a white liner chipboard (duplexboard) mill. The rice husk organic filler was added to the middle ply of SC $350g/m^2$ to determine the optimal conditions for the manufacture of rice husk organic fillers. The mill trials were performed three times and the bulk improvement and drying energy reduction were measured to identify the functionality of the rice husk organic filler compared to that of the commercial wood powder. In the first mill trial, the test failed because the surface roughness of the duplexboard had deteriorated after the rice husk organic filler was added to the OCC stock. As all of the particles remaining on the 60 mesh sieves were removed and the particle size was decreased by increasing the length of the grinding process, the surface roughness of the duplexboard did not be deteriorated in the second mill trial. However, the bulk improvement and drying energy reduction were not observed. In the final mill trial, as the particle size of the rice husk organic filler was controlled by increasing the portion of particles passing through the 60 mesh sieves and remaining 100 mesh sieves, higher bulk improvement and drying energy reduction were acquired compared to the commercial wood powder.
