Oxygen delignification process chemistry for Acacia

A series of laboratory oxygen delignification were performed in this study at constant oxygen pressure and consistency to study the response of the pulp to the different process parameters, i.e. reaction temperature, reaction time, soda addition, and mechanical pretreatment, to the zero span tensile strength loss. The basic chemistry of the oxygen delignified pulps was under study including fiber charge, celluloses/hemicelluloses, and hexenuronic acid. The fiber structure such as curl, kink, fines, and fiber length were also discussed. NaOH charge can be reduced as much as 50 % by applying mechanical pretreatment to obtain the same level of selectivity at the oxygen delignification conditions described in this study.Mechanical pretreatment prior to oxygen delignification promoted a better selectivity for both Acacia mangium and MHW pulps. MHW kraft pulp did not show a significant extractive removal in all pretreatment methods during oxygen delignification. The ultrasonic pretreatment followed by filtering induced the best extractive removal among the other three methods.M.S.Committee Chair: Ragauskas, A.J.; Committee Co-Chair: Hsieh, J.S.; Committee Member: Empie, H