ABSTRACT
Many studies have shown that the yield of kraft pulping can be improved by xylan reabsorption to the pulp during the cooking, and kraft black liquor contains significant fraction of xylan from wood, an important source of these macromolecules. However, the effect of this technique in the physical-mechanical and optical properties of bleached eucalyptus pulp is not very clear. This study produced pulp from eucalyptus kraft conventional cooking with different additions of black liquor (0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% v/v). The cooking was conducted to kappa number 17-18 and the resulting pulps were delignified with oxygen in fixed conditions. Bleaching was performed using a sequence DHT (EP) DP to end whiteness 92% ISO. Next pulps were refined in a PFI mill at different levels of revolutions (0, 500, 1,500, 3,000 and 6,000) and tests of tear resistance, bursting and the air flow, elongation, opacity, density, apparent specific volume, Klemm capillary and water retention value (WRV). The efficiency and brightness gain of the pre-delignification were slightly affected by the addition of black liquor in kraft pulping. The addition of 50% of black liquor to cooking resulted in a worse pulp ability for bleaching, and the chlorine demand increased by 5.3 kg/t pulp oven dry to obtain 92% ISO brightness. The physical-mechanical and optical properties bleached kraft pulps were not influenced significantly by the use of black liquor in cooking.
Keywords:
hemi-cellulose removal; xylans; bleaching; physical-mechanical properties