This work relates to the manufacture of chemical pulp and in particular is concerned with the improvement of pulp yield in alkaline pulping process by the addition of sodium polysulfides.
The polysulfide liquors are prepared by the reaction of various alkaline aqueous solutions such as sodium sulfide, kraft white liquor and caustic soda with powdered sulfur.
The most profitable method is to react sodium sulfide with sulfur in aqueous solution, and it have been shown experimentally to produce polysulfides without any losses of soda and sulfur. In the case of using kraft white liquor and caustic soda however, it was recognized that the percentage of polysulfide produced was approximately 60% based on Na
2O in alkaline solution because of the formation of sodium thiosulfate.
The stability and hydrolysis of polysulfide liquors are also discussed in this paper.
In the cooking experiments, Japanese red pine (pinus densiflora) wood chips were pulped by use of alkaline cooking liquors with various amounts and several types of polysulfide under the cooking condition of conventional kraft process.
For comparison purposes, the same supply of wood was pulped to a similar Roe No. level using an kraft white liquor.
The presence of polysulfides in alkaline cooking liquor was found to increase the screened yield by about 1.2 to 2.4% according to the amounts of polysulfide sulfur 1.8 to 8.5% added on wood chips.
View full abstract