The potential of acid pre-hydrolyzed Soda-AQ process to manufacture highly purified α-cellulose

This research was performed to evaluate the potential of acid pre-hydrolysis soda-AQ process for the production of dissolving pulp including high α-cellulose content from Populus deltoides. To achieve the aim, a pre-hydrolysis liquor containing 0.06% acid sulfuric, soda-AQ pulping, and OD0ED1 bleaching sequence were used. The results show that using at least 0.40 kappa factor at D0 stage was necessary to gain access a high quality dissolving pulp including characteristics like having brightness level and α-cellulose content higher than 86% and 98%, respectively. A kappa reduction of 40.3% was achieved by performing a single stage oxygen delignification after soda-AQ pulping to drop kappa number of pulp from 14.1 to 8.4 prior to entrancing the pulp into the final bleaching stage. The results illustrated that producing acid pre-hydrolyzed soda-AQ dissolving pulp including high α-cellulose content and brightness, and even viscosity is completely feasible through controlling and optimizing the acid pre-hydrolysis, pulping, oxygen delignification stages, and D0ED1 bleaching sequence.