Bamboo is a fast growing non-wood plant with long and thin fibers. Therefore, it has potential as a raw material for pulping and papermaking from lowland bamboo (Oxytenanthera abyssinica). Samples were harvested, sorted, dried and milled using Wiley Mill and chips of greater than 5mm in length was selected. In this work, the effect of soda-Anthraquinone (AQ) pulping conditions on pulp yield and kappa number of lowland bamboo were evaluated. The bamboo chips were pulped using digester pulping

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... t with 15, 20 and 25% varying alkali charge; 60, 120 and 180 minute cooking time and 150, 175 and 200 o C cooking temperature. The maximum pulp yield and minimum kappa number obtained was 52.24% and 12.16, respectively. This was achieved under the optimum conditions: at the active alkali of 20%, cooking temperature of 150 o C and cooking time of 180 minute with high value of combined desirability, i.e. 0.98. This study indicated that good pulp yield can be produced from O. abyssinica with more environmentally friendly chemical pulping process. Finally, it can be concluded that O. abyssinica has a great potential for manufacturing of pulp in paper and paper products processing industries.