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Upgrading of commercial pulps to high-purity dissolving pulps by an ionic liquid-based extraction method

  • Petra Wollboldt EMAIL logo , Michael Strach , Axel Russler , Stepanka Jankova and Herbert Sixta
Published/Copyright: April 22, 2017
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Abstract

In the course of the Ioncell-P process, hemicelluloses are extracted from wood pulps by a mild treatment with an ionic liquid (IL) water mixture, and the result is a high-purity dissolving pulp. The aim of the present work is to study the influence of pulp origin concerning different wood species and pulping processes on the resulting pulp purity and yield after extraction with IL/water, while the IL is 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([emim][OAc]). The raw materials were chosen from commercial alkaline kraft and acid sulfite paper and dissolving pulps prepared from both hardwood (HW) and softwood (SW). The extraction was followed by a filtration step to separate the cellulose and the hemicellulose fractions. The hemicelluloses were precipitated from the IL/water filtrate. In general, the Ioncell-P process proved to be more selective toward the removal of xylan as compared to glucomannan indicating that HW pulps are easier to purify than those of SW. It was possible to reach high alpha pulp qualities by the extraction process.

Acknowledgments

Financial support was provided by the Austrian government, the provinces of Lower Austria, Upper Austria, and Carinthia. We also express our gratitude to the Johannes Kepler University, Linz and the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna, for their in-kind contributions. We thank the members of the Department of Forest Products Technology of the University of Aalto for their help and scientific discussions. The company Glanzstoff Industries is thanked for their financial and material support and the intensive cooperation as project and company partner.

  1. Funding: Österreichische Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft (grant/award number: “comet programme”)

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Received: 2016-10-19
Accepted: 2017-3-21
Published Online: 2017-4-22
Published in Print: 2017-7-26

©2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorial
  3. Editorial
  4. Original Articles
  5. About structural changes of lignin during kraft cooking and the kinetics of delignification
  6. Utilization of lignin powder for manufacturing self-binding HDF
  7. Consecutive determination of softwood kraft lignin structure and molar mass from NMR measurements
  8. Production of hemicellulose oligomers from softwood chips using autohydrolysis followed by an enzymatic post-hydrolysis
  9. Morphological features of aerogels and carbogels based on lignosulfonates
  10. Wood based activated carbons for supercapacitor electrodes with sulfuric acid electrolyte
  11. New insights into the decomposition mechanism of chlorine dioxide at alkaline pH
  12. Upgrading of commercial pulps to high-purity dissolving pulps by an ionic liquid-based extraction method
  13. Hardwood kraft pulp structural features affecting refinability
  14. Brightness stability of eucalyptus-dissolving pulps: effect of the bleaching sequence
  15. Cellulose fiber based fungal and water resistant insulation materials
  16. Biomass conversion into blow-in heat insulation materials by steam explosion
  17. Effect of cationic polyelectrolytes in contact-active antibacterial layer-by-layer functionalization
  18. Nanocelluloses obtained by ammonium persulfate (APS) oxidation of bleached kraft pulp (BKP) and bacterial cellulose (BC) and their application in biocomposite films together with chitosan
  19. Volatile terpene extraction of spruce, fir and maritime pine wood: supercritical CO2 extraction compared to classical solvent extractions and steam distillation
  20. Protective effects of proanthocyanidins extracts from the bark of deciduous trees in lipid systems
  21. Short Notes
  22. Steam explosion treatments of technical hydrolysis lignin
  23. Moisture absorption properties of hardwood veneers modified by a sol-gel process
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