Acidic prehydrolysis role in dissolving pulp production from OCC

Acid prehydrolysis aiming to remove hemicelluloses is one the key steps in producing dissolving pulp from wood resources. The objective of the present research is to resolve the necessity of using tis treatment in dissolving pulp production from old corrugated container. Therefore, temperature of 130 C, acid concentration of 1%, time of 30 min and liquor to paper of 7:1 were selected as acid pretreatment and the properties of both samples of with and without prehydrolysis were compared after cooking. The results showed that excluding reactivity, other dissolving pulp required properties including accessibility, degree of polymerization and the alpha cellulose content were diminished. Also, the results of yield and chemical composition indicated the destruction of this step to samples. Finally, regarding the superior properties of samples with no prehydrolysis and their acceptable value of reactivity, not only the acid prehydrolysis necessity was not acknowledged but also its application is not recommended.