It was found in preliminary work on this study that Larch wood produce thermo-mechanical pulps with lower strength properties compared with those of from other soft woods such as Spruce and Fir. Therefore, various pretreatment or combination of the pretreatment with post-treatment had been applied to produce the acceptable pulp from Larch wood in high yield. The former is called as chemi-thermo-mechanical pulping (CTMP) and the latter is called modified chemi-thermo-mechanical pulping (modified CTMP).
To obtain the CTMP from Larch wood, wood chips were subjected to various sulfite liquors, neutral sulfite, bisulfite and alkaline sulfite, and then defibrated in a laboratory Asplund defibrator (type D). The resultant pulps were beaten in a PFI mill to given CSF value, and physical properties were determined on handsheets prepared from the pulps.
Bisulfite treatment gave the CTMP with superior properties to these of from other treatments. Neutral sulfite treatment also resulted in the CTMP with high strength properties, but not as good as those of the CTMP from bisulfite treated wood chips. The strength properties of CTMP prepared from alkaline sulfite treated chips were only marginally better than those of the TMP.
As far as strength properties are concerned, however, the properties of Larch CTMP produced from suitable pretreated chips were only comparable with those of TMP from spruce wood. To improve the properties of CTMP from Larch wood, ozone treatment was applied as a post-treatment. Ozonized CTMP were prepared from CTMP by subjecting the pulp to single or two-stage ozone treatment in gaseous phase. The results showed that ozone treatment improved the strength properties of CTMP used in this study. Two-stage ozone treatment gave the pulps with higher breaking length and lower tear factor compared with those of from single stage ozone treatment. Extraction of ozoneized CTMP with 1% sodium hydroxide resulted in the pulp with higher breaking length and lower tear factor in lower yield compared with those of pulps produced by 1% sodium bisulfite extraction. Additional advantages arising from the use of ozone included its ability to act as a bleaching agent.
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