SINGAPORE — Scientists at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have developed a type of paper made from the plant material pollen that can be printed on, then erased, then printed on again up to eight times.
They said the pollen-based paper could become an eco-friendly alternative to conventional paper, causing less damage to the environment. “This is a new approach to paper recycling – not just by making paper in a more sustainable way, but also by extending the lifespan of the paper so that we get the maximum value out of each piece of paper we produce”, said co-lead of the research, Professor Subra Suresh, who is also NTU president.
“ This is a new approach to paper recycling – not just by making paper in a more sustainable way, but also by extending the lifespan of the paper so that we get the maximum value out of each piece of paper we produce.NTU scientists first unveiled the pollen-based paper in November last year, when they demonstrated another use: Its ability to fold itself into certain configurations. The material is created by adding potassium hydroxide to sunflower pollen grains. The process of transforming pollen to paper is similar to traditional soap making, a much simpler and less energy-intensive process than wood-pulp paper. The NTU researchers found that pollen paper could be recycled without being re-pulped. Conventional paper recycling involves repulping, removing printer tone and reconstruction. It is energy-intensive and contributes to rising carbon emissions.To demonstrate their new method of recycling pollen paper, the researchers laser printed an image of Vincent Van Gogh’sseries. To"unprint", the image was rinsed off by immersing the pollen paper in an alkaline lab reagent, causing the toner layer to break away from the paper. Swollen from the unprinting process, the paper was left to shrink in ethanol and air-dried. After treating it with acid, the paper was ready for printing again. This process of treating pollen paper with acid, printing, then rinsing off the printed image, could be repeated another eight times without losing the quality of the paper or the printed images, the researchers noted. In contrast, recycling techniques for conventional paper uses chemicals such as . chloroform or acetone or high-intensity light to remove the toner. Both steps could damage the paper and make it unsuitable for re-printing. In addition, the use of chemicals has environmental and health risks.The National Environment Agency said paper and cardboard is the largest contributor to waste in Singapore. In 2020, 1,114 million tonnes of such waste was generated, of which 38 per cent was recycled, it added.searchers are seeking commercial partners on opportunities to scale up. The lab is only able to produce pollen paper in the kilograms, but to replace conventional paper, the plant-based paper has to be produced in the metric tonnes. In response to TODAY's queries, an NTU spokesperson said an A4 piece of pollen paper cost about 2.4 US cents to make in a laboratory. Using"optimised processes", that could be reduced to 1 US cent, which is comparable to conventional paper. “With further developments in scalable manufacturing, could be adapted and extended to produce other 'directly printable' paper-based products such as storage and shipping cartons and containers,” said Prof Subra. On future possibilities of this research, Professor Cho Nam-Joon, who co-led the research, said that “by integrating conductive materials with the pollen paper, we could potentially use the material in soft electronics, green sensors, and generators to achieve advanced functions and properties”.
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