Effect of age and height on the silica content in buluh semantan (Gigantochloa scortechinii) / Nor Asikir Mamat

The study of ash and silica content is important since it is known to cause blunting of saw tooth and problems during chemical recovery of black liquor in the manufacture of chemical pulps. Thus, knowledge on the ash and silica content of the pulping materials would enable a mill to take positive measures in their effort to avoid or minimize such problems. Ash and silica contents are determined by using the dry ashing technique. From the results achieved in this experiment, the ash and silica content were significantly affected by the age and but not by bamboo portion. Correlation analysis further revealed that there was no significant relationship between ash and silica content with bamboo age and portion. However silica content was observed to have a highly significant correlation with ash content.