PAPER FROM SUGAR-CANE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 124, 16 May 1908, Page 3

PAPER FROM SUGAR-CANE

PKOBLEJI SAID TO BE SOIA'KD. Trinidad, Jlarch 11. The problem of converting megars, the refuse of the sugar-cane after all juice has' been expressed, into cellulose, lias for some time occupied attention; hitherto without practical result. It

is new claimed to have been solved by a sugar planter here, Mr. Bert de L.iniarre, the enterprising proprietor of the Tacarhjua Estates, some !).IKID acres. Mr. Bert tic Jjunarre, who is known an

a chemist of ihigh order, after two years' careful experiment satislied himself that excellent paper could be profitably made from banana, para grass, ami other typical vegetation that abounds in the district. In proof of his confidence he has erected as an ml-

pmct to his sugar factory, paper pulp works, at a cost of .1*17,000. The megar-s, after treble crushing in the cane mill>, is conveyed automatic ally lu t In* paper works, where, after

treatment by the special process dvvi*ed by Mr. Hert de. Uimarre. it ii boiled for some hours, and then, after further crushing by rotating mill-stones, passe* through the ordinary pulp-mak-ing machinery with which one is familiar, until it is finally cut and baled under hydraulic pressure. Mr. de Lamarre calculates that 84 per cent., of the megass ie converted into pulp. The capacity of the plant is fifteen tons a day. This invention bids fair, in the opinion of Mr. de lamarre. to revolutionise the cane sugar industry.

I It means, lie maintains, that ii will pay to grow sugar-cane for the *ake of t lie megass. and that tho resulting .sugar may almost Ih' treated as a by-product. It means that the sugar industry of these colonies may once again resume a high position among remunerative occupations. Megas* lias hitherto been used for fuel, one ton being worth for that purpose, say. 7s (id—four tons of mega** being e»pial to one ton of coal,

The cost of manufacture into pulp by machinery fed with the superfluous steam from the sugar plant is comparatively trilling, and the value of the pulp is at least £5 per ton. In the o(T sugar season the works will be kept going by supplies from the numerous otIKV fibrous materials that can be successfully dealt with under the process of Mr. Bert de Lamarre. The great value of the discovery to these colonies may therefore be understood.