Excepting bamboo and sungrass, various grass species growing in the forest lands of Chittagong, Chittagong Hill Tracts and Sylhet districts of Bangladesh, at present, have practically no use. Five grass species, namely, Panicum, antidetale, Retz., Themeda arundinacea, Ridley., Saccharum spontaneum Linn., Thysanolaena maxima, O Ktze, and Imperata arundinacea, Cyr., which are available in the area in appreciable quantities, have been pulped by steaming and soda processes for the manufacture of insulation boards in equivalent mixtures as well as in the proportion of their availability in the forests. The pulps obtained by the steaming process were free-draining but rather dark in colour. Soda pulps were lighter in colour but comparatively slow-draining. Yield was high in both the processes.

Rigid structural insulation boards were made both by press-drying in a hot hydraulic press at low pressure and by cold pressing the mats and then drying in a force-draft oven. The boards had very good strength but moderate heat insulating properties, They compared favourably with the imported ones so far as the moisture resistance properties were concerned.