Variabilitas Massa Jenis Kayu Daun Lebar Tropis terhadap Karakter Serat, Kimia dan Pulp Sulfat Variability of Wood Specific Gravity of Tropical Hardwoods to the Characteristic of Fibers, Chemicals and Pulp Sulfate

The demand for hardwood pulp is rapidly increasing in the world, partly due to the limited availability of softwood and hardwood in developed country of the world and partly due to the technical advantages which short hardwood fibers process for various paper and paperboards. The study was confined to the establishment of appropriate criteria pulpwood from tropical forest. The evaluation and analysis on the effect of wood specific gravity on the fiber properties, wood chemical properties, and pulp characteristics were conducted using data source from Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).The data of wood specific gravity value for the species varied a wide range from 0.30 to 0.98, because of dense nature of wood, high specific gravity species are generally believed to require impregnation and cooking periods. While some among the denser species have high screening reject and high permanganate number (PN) or Kappa number (KN) values. The finding of liquor penetration of chips does not depend wholly on specific gravity but also on the anatomical structure and chemical constituents of wood. As to the other wood and fiber characteristics, strength and physical properties of pulp hand sheet, wood specific gravity a certain relationship to fiber morphology.The results showed that variability of wood specific gravity affected the cell wall thickness, lignin content and pulp sulfate quality. This result of analysis can be used as a preliminary pulping indicator.