Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Graduated Student, Department of Bio-refinery Engineering, Faculty of New Technologies Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University, Zirab P.O. Box 47815-168, Mazandaran, Iran
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Bio-refinery Engineering, Faculty of New Technologies Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University, Zirab, Mazandaran, Iran
Abstract
Background and purpose: In the production of pulp, materials such as sodium hypochlorite, chlorine dioxide, ozone, hydrogen peroxide, etc. are used in the bleaching process. In addition, the above-mentioned materials can be used as oxidizing materials to increase the surface charge of fibers, can help the paper to be more resistant. Therefore, this research was conducted to investigate the effect of fiber oxidation with hydrogen peroxide and sodium hypochlorite on the characteristics of NSSC and OCC pulps as fresh and recycled pulps, respectively.
Materials and methods: The pulps required for this research, unbleached NSSC pulp and OCC pulp were obtained from Mazandaran wood and paper factory, and first, the percentage of consistency, initial freeness and brightness of the pulp were measured. Also, the required chemicals were all of industrial grade, hydrogen peroxide (in liquid form 52%) from Chlor Pars Tabriz Company and sodium hypochlorite (in liquid form 16.4%) from Kleran Semnan Company and sodium silicate from Bawand Shimi Qazvin Company, caustic (Liquid soda) with a purity of 47% for bleaching with peroxide was obtained from Arvand Abadan Petrochemical, and soda ash (solid soda) with a purity of 90% for bleaching with hypochlorite was obtained from Chloran Pars, Semnan. In order to control the destructive effects of transition metals, all pulps were treated with 0.2% DTPA, in 2% dryness conditions, time 30 minutes, temperature 90 degrees Celsius and pH=5.5-5, before bleaching. At the end of this step, the pulp is thoroughly washed with distilled water and used for the next steps. For the oxidation of both types of pulp, 3, 4, 5% hydrogen peroxide and sodium hypochlorite were used for oxidation of NSSC pulp using the above ratios (similar to peroxide) and for OCC pulp, 0.5, 1 and 1.5% hypochlorite ratios were used. Then the structural characteristics of the fibers such as pulp freeness, kappa number, WRV, viscosity, carboxyl groups were investigated and finally, the pulps were evaluated by FT-IR spectroscopy.
Results: The results showed that with the increase in the consumption of hypochlorite, freeness increased in the oxidized NSSC pulps, but the trend of freeness decreased in the oxidized OCC pulp. This issue shows the situation regarding the use of peroxide. Also, the oxidation of pulp by sodium hypochlorite compared to peroxide has resulted in the release of more lignin, and in this sense, the effectiveness of OCC pulp (with 1.5% hypochlorite, equivalent to 56.68% Kappa loss) has been higher compared to NSSC pulp (with 5% hypochlorite, equivalent to 83.27% Kappa loss).
The amount of water retention value in the pulp fibers in the NSSC pulp treatments has increased compared to the control pulp, and in the case of the OCC treatments, it has not changed significantly compared to the control treatment, and only in one case (OC-Na1) has a significant decrease. With the increase of peroxide consumption in the oxidation process of both types of NSSC and OCC pulp, despite the increase in viscosity, there is no significant difference between different consumption levels. In addition, with the increase in the level of hypochlorite consumption, a significant increase in the viscosity of the aforementioned pulps is observed So that the highest increase related to the sample using 5% hypochlorite for NSSC pulps was equal to 731.87 ml/g. The amount of carboxyl groups of pulps treated with peroxide increased in both types of NSSC and OCC pulps compared to the control sample so that the highest amount of carboxyl groups related to 5% treatment was equal to 0.0468 mmol/g for NSSC samples. The evaluation of FT-IR spectroscopy also shows that the oxidation treatment with peroxide and hypochlorite has increased the carboxyl groups on both types of pulp compared to the control samples.
Conclusion: The effectiveness of hypochlorite compared to peroxide in the creation of carboxyl groups in both types of pulp was more, which seems that the increase of carboxyl groups on the cellulose chain occurred more on C6 by peroxide and more on C2 and C3 by hypochlorite. The oxidation process increases the viscosity of paper pulp by increasing the carboxyl groups and due to the creation of a higher molecular weight. In addition, the increase of carboxyl groups due to higher chemical activity has made them able to absorb higher water and thus higher WRV.
Keywords
Main Subjects
)