It was found in the previous papers that pulping of larch, cedar, pine heartwood and wood mixtures mainly consisting of pine and fir with the modified two-stage sulfite pulping process gave high yields of pulps with excellent properties.
The process employed in the present study was a two-stage sulfite pulping method, the first step of which consisted in cooking wood in sulfite solution, and the second step inSO
2 solution.
The purpose of the present paper was to determine the effect of the reuse of the spent liquor on the pulping process itself, the properties of the spent liquor, or the yield and quality of the two-stage sulfite pulp.
In this report, a series of the two-stage sulfite digestions of Japanese larch and wood mixtures mainly consisting of pine and fir was made in which the spent liquor from each stage of digestions was collected and used in the next digestion after fortifing with additional cooking chemicals. In the first stage digestion, approximately 60% of the total liquor in the digester at the end of the digestion was recovered, and 80% of the recovered spent liquor was reused. In the second stage digestion the free-draining spent liquor in the digester at the end was recorvered and 50% of the recovered spent liquor was reused.
The results obtained were summarized as follows.
(1) When pulpwood was cooked in the re-used spent liquor in the first stage and then in the fresh cooking liquor in the second stage, and when pulpwood was cooked in the fresh cooking solution in the first stage and then in the recirculated waste liquor in the final stage. the pulping index suggesting pulp properties remained constant in the course of the recycling of the spent liquor.
(2) When pulpwood was cooked in the reused spent liquors both in the first and second stages, the pulping index decreased to some extent with recycling of the spent liquors.
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