EDITED Chapter 1 and 2

EXEQUIEL R.
LINA HIGH SCHOOL

(Formerly San Cristobal High School)
Poblacion Norte, Licab, Nueva Ecija
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
Oryza Sativa (Rice Hulls) as Alternative Paper
A Research Proposal for Capstone Research Project Presented
to the Senior
High School Department
Exequiel R. Lina High Scool
In Partial Fullfilment of the Requirements for the Subject
Capstone
By:
Justine Joy S. Barayuga
Niko Miguel
Mary Diane Bautista
Maria Alexie Galangga
STEM 12
May 2021
EXEQUIEL R. LINA HIGH SCHOOL
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
CHAPTER I
Introduction
According to the statistics in Ricepedia (n.d.), the
Philippines is the world’s eighth-largest rice producer. Its
arable land totals 5.4 million hectares. Rice area harvested
has expanded from nearly 3.8 million hectares in 1995 to about
4.4 million hectares in 2010. Moreover, in an international
count, the world rice harvest is estimated as 500 million
tons per year, and rice husk is the major byproduct generated
during the rice milling process (Glushankova, et al, 2018).
Rice is a staple food for the majority of Filipinos throughout
the world. National per capita intake of rice increased from
93.2 kg per year in 1995 to 123.3 kg per year in 2009. This
means that there is a large amount of excess rice hulls, and
so its utilization becomes an ecological problem due to huge
rice production and its continuous growth.
Paper is a very in demand product, and its demand
increases every year as the world’s population increases as
well. Although deforestation is not really a relevant problem
that the country is facing right now, this research is to
provide an eco-friendlier alternative, both to utilize the
massive amount of excess rice husks, and to preserve trees as

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
well. As what stated in an article from the International
Paper Company (2011), The process of papermaking uses raw
materials including water, energy, chemicals and wood chips,
that contain cellulose. Cellulose is the fiber component of
wood and exists naturally in most plant life. Moreover, rice
hulls represent approximately 20% of the dry weight of the
rice harvest.
It contains 36–40 g/100 g cellulose and 12–19 g/100 g
hemicelluloses. Ash represents approximately 12 g/100 g,
which is primarily silica (80–90 g/100 g)6,7. Rice husk is
the coating on a seed or grain of rice and is separated from
the grain as part of the milling process, after which the
rice is polished. Its ash is used to make fuel, but commonly
in the Philippines, rice hulls are utilized to preserve big
blocks of ice found in Filipino supermarkets.
Through innovation, the researchers tried to formulate
and create an alternative to tree-made paper. This research
project is to create paper using rice hulls. Not only will it
utilize excess rice hulls produced from the harvest of rice,
but it will also be an eco-friendlier alternative by saving
more trees from being cut down just to produce paper.

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
Statement of The Problem
The study aims to create an innovative type of paper using
Rice Hulls and make it as an alternative. This study aims to
do the following:
1. Develop a paper using Oryza Sativa (rice hulls).
2. What are the significant differences between the
alternative and commercial paper in terms of;
a) Density
b) Texture
c) Thickness
d) Durability/Strength
e) Eligibility for Writing
Theoretical Framework
Reuse of Rice Hulls
Concerns for the environment are recurrent in our
society, and research on low impact materials such as those
produced from waste is an alternative. This work is based on
the reuse of scrap paper and rice hulls aiming to increase
the life cycle of these waste products and to find better
destination.
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
Composites with a volumetric filler content (dispersed
phase) of 80% were produced via compression molding using
polyurethane (PU) based on castor oil or polyester resin as
matrix, in four distinct families: polyester/rice hulls,
PU/rice hulls,
polyester/paper and PU/paper. The following tests were
performed: water sorption, contact angle, hardness, impact
and tensile testing. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was
used for fracture morphology study.
Basic visual analysis showed greater void content for
the rice hull composites, making them less aesthetically
appealing compared to paper. It was observed in the case of
PU matrix the filler greatly influenced the rigidity since
this pure material was more flexible compared to pure
polyester. Filler incorporation decreased tensile strength of
the polyester matrix but significantly increased that of the
PU matrix, as what gathered from Matéria (Rio de Janeiro) 22
(2), 2017.
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
Conceptual Framework
Density, thickness, texture,

Oryza Sativa (Rice Hulls) strength, eligibility for writing of
the developed
Figure 1. Conceptual Framework
The framework of the study discusses the independent
variable; Rice hulls as paper, as well as the dependent
variable which is the Developed alternative paper. First, the
researchers performed all the procedures on how to make
handmade rice hulls paper and showed how it transitions into
developed alternative paper. Second, the researchers tested
the quality of the paper by conducting an evaluation to
determine its: a) Density, b) Texture, c) Thickness, d)
Durability/Strength, and e) Eligibility for Writing. Thus,

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
having accurate and exact testing of the paper contributes on
having good quality developed alternative paper.
INPUT PROCESS
1. Develop a paper
OUTPUT
1. Data Gathering
using Oryza Sativa
(rice hulls).
2. What are the • survey
significant Oryza
differences between Questionnaire
the alternative and 2. Organizing and Sativa
commercial paper in (Rice
Presenting Data
terms of; Hulls) as
o Density •Table Alternative
o Texture 3. Statistical
o Thickness Paper
o Durability/ Treatment
Strength •mean
o Eligibility  one-tailed t-test
for Writing
Figure 2. Research Paradigm
Significance of the Study
The researchers sought to develop a paper using Oryza
Sativa (Rice Hulls).
Hence, this study will be beneficial to the following:
Students - Since that the commercial paper is very costly,
these experimental sheets will help the students to quite
save from daily expenses, specifically, for their scrapbook

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
making projects. Knowing this experimental will also lessen
the amount of money they would have to use for their projects.
Community - The community can also benefit from this
study because the utilization of waste will reduce the amount
of solid waste in the community and immediately saves from
danger of flooding heavy rains. It will beneficial to the
community instead of burning it.
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)
- This can also benefit from this study because many trees
will no longer be cut for the production of paper but instead
be preserved for the future generations.
Paper Making Industries - Paper Making Industries would
have another way of making paper, which would enable them to
produce more paper without having to cut thousands of trees.
Future Researchers - To those who will pursue a study
similar to this, this will serve as a reliable reference
material or source to their future study or project.
This study or project will provide them knowledge, ideas
and insights that they needed to pursue this kind of study.

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
Scope and Delimitation
In this study, the focus of the researchers involved are
the qualities of rice hulls as an alternative paper.
Evaluation method was conducted to determine the results of
the alternative paper. The research concentrated mainly on
the exploration of various ways of rice hulls as an
alternative paper in assessing the situation. The papermaking
process took place at Brgy. Villasa Licab Nueva Ecija, in the
household of one of the researchers. The materials used were
individually bought in Licab Public Market, but the rice hulls
were collected within the same city where the study was
conducted.
Definition of Terms
Rice hull (Oryza Sativa) – The rice husk, also called rice
hull, is the coating on a seed or grain of rice. It is formed
from hard materials, including silica and lignin, to protect
the seed during the growing season.
Paper- Paper is a thin sheet material produced by
mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres
derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources
in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
fibre evenly distributed on the surface, followed by pressing
and drying.
Alternative – (of one or more things) available as another
possibility.
Papermaking – Papermaking is the manufacture of paper and
cardboard, which are used widely for printing, writing, and
packaging, among many other purposes.
Eco – friendly paper- is exactly what its name implies: A
greener version of traditional paper, with a smaller carbon
footprint and overall environmental impact
Handmade paper – made by hand, not by machine, and typically
therefore of superior quality.
Utilization of waste - Utilization/disposal of waste products
from conventional wastes and problematic materials.
Deforestation – is the permanent removal of trees to make
room for something besides forest. This can include clearing
the land for agriculture or grazing, or using the timber for
fuel, construction or manufacturing.

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter covers the literature taken from the
concepts, conclusions, and theories of different authors,
which are relevant to the study.
Cellulose Fibers
According to an article from Britannica (2021),
cellulose fibers have high strength and durability. It is the
combination of these qualities with strength and flexibility
that makes cellulose of specific importance for the
manufacture of paper. Many plant materials often contain non-
fibrous elements or cells, which are often present in pulp
and paper. The strongest and most permanent paper would be
made entirely from long fibers of pure cellulose. In
papermaking, cellulose has to be boiled, beaten, or shredded
into tiny fibers. The paper pulp, made up of those tiny fibers
is then spread into sheets, pressed, and dried to make paper.
To make strong paper, you need long fibers which is why the
pulp has to be beaten instead of chopped. Beating the
cellulose separates the fibers from each other, while leaving
individual fibers intact. (Ulin, 2010). Cellulose fibers are

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
present in rice husk because they consist 33% cellulose and
26% hemicellulose, as what stated by Ahmad & Johar (2012).
Oryza Sativa (Rice Hulls)
Several hundred million tons of rice hulls or rice husks
are produced annually. This waste material contains two types
of resources. The organic component of the rice hulls can be
oxidized by receiving energy, and the inorganic remains, or
ash, consist of amorphous silica, which can be used for the
production of various materials. Generation of rice hulls ash
is comparable with the silica mineral extracted from the
ground as a raw material for many types of products
(Glushankova, et al, 2018).
According to the definition that Sekifuji & Tateda (2019)
has given, rice hulls are commodities that need to be recycled
in a sustainable manner, providing a win-win relationship
between stakeholders, customers and society. It is a
potential material, which is amenable for value addition. The
usage of rice hulls either in its raw form or in ash form is
many. Most of the hulls from the milling is either burnt or
dumped as waste in open fields and a small amount are used as
fuel for boilers, electricity generation, bulking agents for
composting of animal manure, etc. (Bronzeoak, 2003;
Asavapisit & Ruengrit, 2005).

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
The exterior of rice husks is composed of dentate
rectangular elements, which themselves are composed mostly of
silica coated with a thick cuticle and surface hairs. It is
described as light in weight, yellowish in color and convex
in shape, slightly bigger than a grain of rice. It is divided
from brown rice grain as part
of the milling process, over which the rice has been polished.
The immense amount of rice husk makes it impossible to store
and extract it.
Burning only pollutes the air if it creates rice husk
ashes or carbonized rice husk if it is not fully burnt. The
mid region and inner epidermis contain little silica
(Bronzeoak, 2003). Jauberthie et al., (2000) confirmed that
the presence of amorphous silica is concentrated at the
surfaces of the rice husk and not within the husk itself. The
chemical composition of rice husk is similar to that of many
common organic fibers and it contains of cellulose 40-50
percent, lignin 25-30 percent, ash15-20 percent and moisture
8- 15 percent (Hwang and Chandra, 1997).

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
Paper
The first papermaking process was documented in China
during the Eastern Han period (25–220 CE) traditionally
attributed to the court official Cai Lun. During the 8th
century, Chinese papermaking spread to the Islamic world,
where pulp mills and paper mills were used for papermaking
and money making. There is ample archaeological evidence of
primitive paper types from the 2nd century BCE in China,
largely using hemp. It is believed that the invention of this
early form of paper was accidental after clothes, which were
made of hemp, were left too long after washing, and a residue
formed in the water which could then be pressed into a useful
new material. The traditional date for the invention of more
refined paper
has long been 105 CE. Cai Lun, the director of the Imperial
Workshops at Luoyang, is the one credited with creating paper
by using soaked and then pressed plant fibers which were dried
in sheets on wooden frames or screens.
Cumbersome bamboo or wooden strips and expensive silk
had been used for centuries as a surface for writing but,
after much endeavor, a lighter and cheaper alternative had
finally been found in the form of paper scrolls (Cartwright,

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
2017). Paper is indeed prevalent in everyone’s daily lives;
it is common in virtually any product that people use, such
as books, towels and sanitary goods, newspapers and magazines,
packets, catalogues, wallpapers, food packaging, gift wraps,
and many other everyday staples (Aguirre, et. al., 2018). It
is the essential material used for the correspondence and
distribution of information in writing, as what Britt (200)
stated. In addition, paper and paperboard provide materials
for hundreds of other applications such as wrapping,
packaging, toweling, insulation and photography.
The invention of paper has greatly contributed to the
dissemination of literature and literacy, making books easy
to use and cheaper. Students at the Imperial Academies were
given thousands of sheets of paper per month by the government.
But regardless of its high demand in the industry, the fact
that it is made out of trees is still not condoned. Using
tree-free paper notebooks for your eco-conscious house,
school and office supplies is environmentally friendly and
socially responsible, according to what was stated in
Ecopaper (n.d).
Papermaking
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
Paper making is a two-step procedure in which the fibrous
raw material is first processed to pulp and then the pulp is
converted to paper. As what Britt (2000)
defined, it is the development of matted or felt sheets,
typically of cellulose fibers, of water suspension on a wire
screen. This process is either done by machine, or manually.
While almost all step-in papermaking has been increasingly
mechanized, the basic method has remained unchanged.
First, the fibers are separated and wetted to produce
the paper pulp, or stock. The pulp is then filtered on a woven
screen to form a sheet of fiber, which is pressed and
compacted to squeeze out most of the water. The remaining
water is removed by evaporation, and the dry sheet is further
compressed and, depending upon the intended use, coated or
impregnated with other substances.
Differences among the grades and types of paper are
determined by several factors: the type of fiber used; the
preparation of the pulp, either by mechanical (groundwood) or
chemical (primarily sulfite, soda, or sulfate) methods, or by
a combination of the two; by the addition of other materials
to the pulp, among the most common being bleach or coloring
and sizing, the latter to retard penetration by ink; by

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
conditions under which the sheet is formed, including its
weight; and by the physical or chemical treatments applied to
the finished sheet (Gaur A., et., al., 2019).
Pulp making
Pulp making is a part of the papermaking process which
can be done mechanically or chemically. The pulp is then
bleached and further processed, depending on the type and
grade of paper that is to be produced.
In internet definition, it is a process that removes
fibrous material, cellulose, wood or other raw material as a
prelude to paper production. Mechanical pulping uses spinning
disks to grind wood chips into pulp. Water is applied to the
process to minimize heat and friction damage. As what P.
Bajpai (2015) stated, the paper pulp may be made from virgin
fiber by chemical or mechanical processes or may be produced
by repulping paper for recycling. Recycled paper accounts for
around 50% of the fabrics used – but in a few instances,
straw, hemp, hay, cotton and other cellulose bearing
materials may be used. Paper processing is primarily a two-
step process in which the fibrous raw material is first

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
transformed into pulp and then the pulp is converted into
paper.
Raw Materials for Old Papermaking in China
The discovery that fibers can be formed into a thin sheet
on a screen is the key to the invention of paper. Chinese
papermakers from very ancient times had selected almost all
the kinds of plants known to modern paper industry as
producing the best of fibers and yet being most economical in
cost. The raw materials producing such fibers include the
bast plants, tree bark, stalks of grasses, and other
vegetation. Hemp is the earliest material known to have been
used for papermaking in China before the Christian era,
followed by paper mulberry from the early second century A.
D. Rattan was especially popular for making the best paper in
southeast China for almost a millennium from the third to
about the twelfth century, when the supply of the raw material
was exhausted.
Bamboo then gradually replaced both rattan and hemp as
the chief material for papermaking since the latter part of
the eighth century. Rice and wheat straw, the bark of
sandalwood and other trees, stalks of hibiscus, seaweed, and

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
certain other plants were also used in making special kinds
of paper. Whether cotton and silk have ever been used is
controversial. Raw cotton is needed for textiles and is not
economical, and pure silk is said to be technically not
feasible for papermaking. It was probably the floss silk from
the waste of silk cocoons which was used for making paper for
special uses. Apparently, the raw plant fibers were not used
by European papermakers until the eighteenth century when
paper of Western origin began to be fabricated from raw hemp,
straw, wood, and other materials as the supply of linen and
cotton rags became insufficient. It was not until the early
part of the nineteenth century that wood pulp was widely used
as the chief raw material in papermaking (Tsien, 1973).
Silicon Dioxide (Silica)
In a significant definition, silicon dioxide, commonly
known as “silica,” is a chemical compound widely used in paper
coatings, particularly in matte paper used in ink-jet
printing. In addition, silica increases the brightness and
opacity of the paper. However, it is not used as a filler in
papermaking mainly because of its high production price
(Hladnik & Muck, 2002; Lee, et al, 2005).

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EXEQUIEL R.

LINA HIGH SCHOOL

Oryza Sativa (Rice Hulls) as Alternative Paper

A Research Proposal for Capstone Research Project Presented

High School Department

Exequiel R. Lina High Scool

In Partial Fullfilment of the Requirements for the Subject

Justine Joy S. Barayuga

Mary Diane Bautista

Maria Alexie Galangga

According to the statistics in Ricepedia (n.d.), the

Philippines is the world’s eighth-largest rice producer. Its

arable land totals 5.4 million hectares. Rice area harvested

has expanded from nearly 3.8 million hectares in 1995 to about

4.4 million hectares in 2010. Moreover, in an international

count, the world rice harvest is estimated as 500 million

during the rice milling process (Glushankova, et al, 2018).

Rice is a staple food for the majority of Filipinos throughout

the world. National per capita intake of rice increased from

93.2 kg per year in 1995 to 123.3 kg per year in 2009. This

means that there is a large amount of excess rice hulls, and

so its utilization becomes an ecological problem due to huge

rice production and its continuous growth.

Paper is a very in demand product, and its demand

increases every year as the world’s population increases as

well. Although deforestation is not really a relevant problem

that the country is facing right now, this research is to

provide an eco-friendlier alternative, both to utilize the

massive amount of excess rice husks, and to preserve trees as

well. As what stated in an article from the International

Paper Company (2011), The process of papermaking uses raw

materials including water, energy, chemicals and wood chips,

that contain cellulose. Cellulose is the fiber component of

wood and exists naturally in most plant life. Moreover, rice

hulls represent approximately 20% of the dry weight of the

It contains 36–40 g/100 g cellulose and 12–19 g/100 g

hemicelluloses. Ash represents approximately 12 g/100 g,

which is primarily silica (80–90 g/100 g)6,7. Rice husk is

the coating on a seed or grain of rice and is separated from

the grain as part of the milling process, after which the

rice is polished. Its ash is used to make fuel, but commonly

in the Philippines, rice hulls are utilized to preserve big

blocks of ice found in Filipino supermarkets.

Through innovation, the researchers tried to formulate

and create an alternative to tree-made paper. This research

project is to create paper using rice hulls. Not only will it

utilize excess rice hulls produced from the harvest of rice,

but it will also be an eco-friendlier alternative by saving

more trees from being cut down just to produce paper.

Statement of The Problem

The study aims to create an innovative type of paper using

Rice Hulls and make it as an alternative. This study aims to

1. Develop a paper using Oryza Sativa (rice hulls).

2. What are the significant differences between the

alternative and commercial paper in terms of;

e) Eligibility for Writing

Reuse of Rice Hulls

Concerns for the environment are recurrent in our

society, and research on low impact materials such as those

produced from waste is an alternative. This work is based on

the reuse of scrap paper and rice hulls aiming to increase

the life cycle of these waste products and to find better

Composites with a volumetric filler content (dispersed