Improve the competitive advantages of pulp fiber-based products over fossil-based materials

To improve the competitive advantages of pulp fibre based materials such as tissue and packaging products over the fossil-based products, it is of key importance to improve the knowledge of the selectivity of the cooking process. There is also demand to expand the fundamental scientific understanding of pulp and paper manufacturing systems because of growing demand for replacing plastics. However, it is challenged to improve the selectivity of the cooking process by optimizing unit operation such as impregnation, cooking and refining. For pulp production based on chips regardless of chemical (kraft or sulphite) or high-yield (chemimechanical or semi-chemical pulp) pulping process, the efficiency of the impregnation is always crucial. To improve impregnation uniformity, we need to study how even distribution of lignin releases down to fibre level via easily impregnated wood chips. It can be achieved, using classic measures such as; equalized hydroxide ion concentration, increased initial sulphide ion concentration, low sodium ion concentration and low boiling temperature combined with the oxidative and reductive environment to understand how the chemicals quickly enter and distribute in the chips. However, we have studied the uniformity of impregnation at fibre level by the possibility of accurately measuring S and Na content by collimating the X-ray beam into a ~200 µm spot in diameter using energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) spectrometry. In addition, we have also studied improved impregnation by selective cooking systems for sulphate pulp in oxidative (polysulfide) and reductive (sodium borohydride, NaBH4) environments. Our aim is to develop standard measurement methods to improve the smoothness of fibre properties for tissue and packaging products to reach the sustainable development goal (SDG) stated by the UN at target 9.5 “Enhance research and upgrade industrial technologies”