KENAF

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September, 1997

KENAF—A COUSIN OF COTTON--COULD CATALYZE PAPER, OIL POLLUTION INDUSTRIES

Contacts: Dr. John Sij (409 752-2741) or Dr. James Stansel (3045)

For photos: Dr. Thomas R. Hargrove (409 762-2763)

By Tom Hargrove

BEAUMONT—Kenaf, a cousin of cotton and okra that African farmers have grown for 4,000 years, could be a new crop for the Gulf Coast. The fast-growing fiber crop may catalyze new, environmentally friendly industries such as tree-free paper, absorbent to clean up oil pollution, and poultry and kitty litter.

Kenaf grows 12 to 15 feet high, can be harvested in 4 to 5 months, and will thrive across much of the southern and southwestern United States, says Dr. John Sij, agronomist at Texas A&M 's Agricultural Research and Extension Center at Beaumont. It's a tough crop that can survive heavy rainfall or drought, and requires few pesticides and little fertilization.

"Kenaf is good to rotate with rice, because it uses the rice irrigation system well," Sij says, pointing out that alternative crops are badly needed. Texas rice acreage is now only 235,000 acres—down from 600,000 acres a few years ago. And expensive cotton and forage machinery can be used to harvest kenaf, when it would otherwise be idle

But there's a Catch 22. "Kenaf is a new crop. Industry can't build processing plants unless supply is assured, and farmers can't plant kenaf on a large scale with no assured market," Sij says.

Seven kenaf processing plants are now operational in the United States, including plants in Houston and McAllen, Texas. A new plant will soon open in Alvin, Texas. Kafus, a Canadian corporation, has proposed a large kenaf paper mill in LaSara, in the Rio Grande Valley.

With an assured market, kenaf might be less risky to grow than "seed crops" like rice or corn, because only its stalk is marketed, Sij says. In fact, the growing season in most of the United States is too short for kenaf to produce viable seeds. Farmers must buy new seeds, mostly from the Rio Grande Valley or Mexico, to plant each crop.

The kenaf stalk has two parts. An outer skin of long, stringy fiber makes a naturally white newsprint that doesn't require bleaching, and resists yellowing. The paper is acid- and chlorine-free, so it deteriorates less with age than wood-based paper. Fiber yields range from 4 to 10 tons per acre—"two to three times more fiber per acre than Southern Pine, a paper industry staple," according to Kafus.

The fiber covers a light, pithy core, like balsa wood, with excellent absorbent qualities. It could replace pine shavings and sawdust as poultry litter, wrote Cindy Noblitt of the University of Oregon and Morris Bitzer of the University of Kentucky in1995. Seventy percent of the U.S. broiler production is in the South, where the pulp and paper industry already has a large presence.

Kenaf litter could go back to the field as organic fertilizer, the scientists wrote.

Kenaf Fibers, Inc., based in Alvin, is building a kenaf processing facility. "The market is there, but starting a new industry is tough," says Carl Spiller, KFI president.

Rice seedsman Jacko Garrett and other farmers planted the first 60 acres of kenaf around Alvin in the spring of 1996. Because kenaf must be harvested dry, they couldn't begin harvest until after a killing winter freeze in late December. But rain then delayed harvest until as late as June, 1997.

The first harvest of a nonconventional crop was another problem, solved by John Campbell, coordinator of the USDA Sam Houston Resource Conservation & Development Area. The nonprofit organization brings new agricultural industry to the Gulf Coast.

Campbell had a forage harvester, designed to cut cattle feed, modified to chop kenaf stalks into 3-inch chunks that were blown into a cotton "boll buggy." The kenaf was then dumped into a cotton module builder and compressed into "6-ton bricks."

Sij is testing herbicides to kill kenaf so the harvest—and cash flow—can start in October or November.

"Grandstand killed kenaf best in initial trials," Sij says. "The herbicide is already approved for rice, so getting approval for use on kenaf—a non-food crop—should be no problem."

Weeds that emerge with the kenaf are a problem in early growth, but can be controlled with Treflan, Sij says. Root knot nematode is a problem in sandy soils.

"Kenaf is a natural and biodegradable absorbent for petroleum pollutants," says Alex Bonvicini, president of Petroexx International Corp., Houston. Kenaf 2000--Petroexx's main product—is used to clean up oil pollution around refineries, oil fields, and car garages. Several airports use the kenaf product as an absorbent for spilled jet fuel on tarmacs.

"Kenaf particles float—which could make it suitable for cleaning up spills from oil tanker crashes," Bonvicini says.

Kenaf encapsulates oil, and won't allow it to leach out, Bonvicini adds. Natural microbes on kenaf interact with indigenous microbes in oil to bio-remediate contaminated soil. Microbial action is higher in warm climates.

Kenaf core that has been hammermilled absorbs as much as seven times its weight in light crude oil, says Dr. Marty Fuller, assistant director of the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, Starkville. Mississippi has 19 scientists, from 15 disciplines, working at least part-time on kenaf. The emphasis is on product development.

Petroexx also markets a kenaf additive—Brandexx--to prevent petroleum drilling fluids, or "mud," from seeping from wells into surrounding formations.

Petroexx opened a 30,000 square foot kenaf processing plant in Houston in August. The company has contracted to grow 750 acres—enough to produce 4,000 tons of raw kenaf—this year. Bonvicini will process more than 7,000 tons next year.

Farmers have grown kenaf for fiber and food for thousands of years in Eastern and Central Africa. Kenaf was used to make paper in India in the 19th century. Scientists in the former USSR studied kenaf in the 1920s, then introduced it into China--now the world's largest producer of kenaf fiber--in the mid-1930s.

"U.S. research on kenaf began during World War II for the same reason the government was urging farmers to grow hemp [marijuana]," Noblitt and Bitzer wrote. The U.S. jute supply from Asia was cut off, so another fiber source was needed desperately.

Scientists grew kenaf at the Beaumont Center and at the Texas A&M experiment farm at College Station in 1967 and 1968.

"Its spongy structure should make horse bedding a natural market for kenaf," Spiller points out. "It doesn't compact like wood shavings."

Other potential uses are as cordage (twine, rope, burlap); as greenhouse potting material; to add bulk to sewage sludge; in mats used for seeding and erosion control; in carpeting and fiberboard; integrated with cotton for personal and industrial textiles; and to make strong, lightweight products for aircraft and cars.

One type of kenaf has leaves that look like marijuana; another has leaves like the cotton plant. Growers of the marijuana type in Mississippi have been plagued by police stakeouts, and theft by marijuana users.

The Texas growers use the cotton-leaved kenaf, but it sometimes produces leaves that resemble marijuana. "We've notified local law enforcement officers, to avoid problems if they see any of the marijuana-like leaves," says Don Tankersley, KFI treasurer.