Abstract
In this laboratory study, a hardwood bleached kraft pulp (HBKP) was converted to dissolving pulp by removing hemicellulose using organic electrolyte solutions (OES), consisting of ionic liquid (1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate (EminAc)) and a polar organic solvent γ-valerolactone (GVL). The molar ratio of GVL/EmimAc, and temperature have significant effect on the swelling of HBKP fibers, thus the hemicellulose dissolution/removal process. Under the optimal conditions of GVL/EmimAc molar ratio of 4 and 60 °C, hemicellulose was effectively removed, leading to the formation of a dissolving pulp with yield of 76%, cellulose content of 91%, Fock reactivity of 56.8% and viscosity of 723 mL/g. Furthermore, the potential of using EmimAc/GVL/water ternary system to selectively remove hemicelluloses from the same HBKP was studied. The GVL/EmimAc/water ratio of 2:1:1 at 60 °C showed promising results, with yield of 76.7%, and cellulose content of 94.8%.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to the financial support from the Canada Research Chair’s Program of the Government of Canada (231308), National Natural Science Foundation of China (31700510), and China Scholarship Council (201908610074).
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Yang, B., Qin, X., Duan, C. et al. Converting bleached hardwood kraft pulp to dissolving pulp by using organic electrolyte solutions. Cellulose 28, 1311–1320 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-020-03642-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-020-03642-4