Effects of Alkali Concentration on Fiber Characteristics of SwBKP during Alkali Treatment in Cosolvent System

초록

Various mechanical and chemical pretreatment methods including alkali treatment, pre-beating, enzyme treatment and oxidation treatment have been used to reduce the production energy of the microfibrillated cellulose (MFC). Among them, alkali swelling can be helpful to reduce the energy consumption because the internal bonding between fibrils could be weakened. In this study, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) was used as a cosolvent to improve alkali pretreatment efficiency and the effects of NaOH concentration during NaOH-DMSO swelling on changes in fiber characteristics of softwood bleached kraft pulp (SwBKP) were elucidated. For alkali treatment in H2O-DMSO solvents, fiber length were decreased with increasing NaOH concentration while fiber width, curl and WRV were increased. WRV began to increase at 8% NaOH solution. In addition, above 8% concentration of NaOH, crystalline structure of pulp fibers converted from cellulose II to cellulose III by DMSO cosolvent. Comparing the previous results with this study, it was shown that DMSO cosolvent could promote swelling of pulp fibers and thus reduce NaOH concentration for the maximum swelling of fibers. © 2016 Korean Technical Assoc. of the Pulp and Paper Industry. All rights reserved.

키워드