Firm uses corn cobs in paper production

A domestic technology start-up and a research team have developed and commercialized technology that produces high-quality paper out of corn cobs. CP&P Korea said yesterday that it succeeded in making paper at its pilot factory in Wisconsin, the United States, a corn-producing state, with waste corn cobs. A research center under the U.S. Department of Agriculture officially approved the company’s technology, CP&P said. “Compared with pulp made with lumber, corn cobs are far more cheap as a base material, and requires fewer chemicals,” Kim Sang-won, president of CP&P said. According to the research center under the U.S. agriculture ministry, the paper made with corn cobs were as white and smooth as regular copy paper, and superior in tensile strength compared with regular paper, the company said. The paper was made with 80 percent corn pulp and 20 percent lumber pulp. One of few drawbacks was transportation, because corn cobs are relatively large in volume, but it can be solved by collapsing them with compressors, which most farmhouses in the United States are equipped with, Mr. Kim said. CP&P plans to mass produce corn cob pulp in Wisconsin starting in fall this year, and provide them to paper companies in Korea and overseas. by Kweon Hyuk-joo