Xylan is the main hemicellulose in birch, eucalyptus, and most other hardwood species. During kraft pulping a series of chemical reactions and physical processes involving xylan takes place. The processes studied here are the following: dissolution, degradation, redeposition onto the fibres, side-group conversion, and cleavage of side groups off the xylan backbone. The side group in native xylan consists of methylglucuronic acid, which is partly converted into hexenuronic acid during kraft cooking. Hexenuronic acid affects the pulp in terms of increased brightness reversion and reduced bleachability. The kinetics of the side-group cleavage and conversion reactions were studied using various analytical tools. The study revealed that the most common methods for methylglucuronic acid quantifcation can be signifcantly improved in terms of accuracy. A modifcation and combination of two of the methods was suggested and evaluated. In order to minimise the hexenuronic acid content, a common suggestion involves the use of a high cooking temperature. The kinetic study found that the degree of substitution of pulp xylan is only slightly affected by temperature, and that the observed effects are likely to be more associated with the xylan content of the pulp than with the hexenuronic acid content of the xylan. For the dissolved xylan, however, the degree of substitution indicated a high temperature dependency for birch kraft cooking. By collecting black liquors at different stages in the cook, different molecular properties of the dissolved xylan was obtained. The liquors were charged at later parts of the cook, making the dissolved xylan to reattach to the fibres. Depending on the molecular properties of the added xylan, the tensile strength properties of the produced paper were improved. These improvements in paper properties were correlated to the molecular behaviour of the added xylan in solution. / QC 20100702

Hydrocyclones can be used to fractionate fibres according to their papermaking potential. The obtained fractions typically differ in fibre wall thickness and/or degree of fibre treatment. Despite a multitude of potential application scenarios, the process has so far had little commercial success. This is largely explained by the low fractionation efficiency and unfavourable operating characteristics of the process. The fractionation efficiency of a hydrocyclone is closely related to its flow field. The influence of pulp concentration on the tangential velocity field was therefore studied, by using a self-cleaning pitometer. It was found that the pulp concentration had a strong influence on the tangential velocity. At a feed pulp concentration above 7.5 g/l, the suspension rotated almost as a solid body. As a consequence, the magnitude of radial acceleration and shear stresses decreased dramatically. It is suggested that this is detrimental to the fractionation efficiency. The radial velocity field was measured using an Ultrasonic Velocity Profiler. The measurements showed that the rotational centre of the flow field did not correspond with the geometrical centre of the hydrocyclone. This displacement caused the tangential velocity component of the vortex to contribute substantially to the measurement result of the radial velocity component. Based on the findings in respect to the flow field studies, a novel design for a fibre fractionation hydrocyclone was proposed. The flow field inside this hydrocyclone was compared to that in a conventional hydrocyclone. It was found, that high radial acceleration and shear stresses could be maintained in the novel design even at high fibre concentration. The fractionation efficiency of the novel hydrocyclone was characterised in terms of surface roughness difference between fine and coarse fraction. When operated with refined bleached softwood kraft pulp, the novel hydrocyclone could produce fractions with a substantial surface roughness difference without deteriorating the dewatering characteristics of the fine fraction. A low thickening of the reject is proposed to be the explanation for that. When fractionating TMP, the best efficiency occurred at a concentration of 10 g/l. / QC 20100804

The flow behaviour, and primarily the floc-floc interaction, of pulp paper suspensions have been studied visually. Analogy models based on these observations have been developed as well as the identification of important parameters of floc break-up in low shear rate flow fields. Floc compressions and the locations of voids (areas of lower fibre concentration) where found to influence the floc splitting mechanism. Based on this investigation an equipment for measuring the load carrying ability of fibre flocs and networks was designed, and the effect of measurement geometry, network structure and fibre suspension concentration was investigated. The load carrying ability with concentration increases rapidly when going from 1% to 2% in initial suspension concentration. A model handling the fibre floc behaviour during extension and compression has been developed, and some basic flocculated flow mechanisms are discussed on an analogy basis. A modified Voigt element is use, describing mainly the compressional behaviour and plastic behaviour of loose fibre network structures. Further the pos- sibility of stress chain formation is discussed on a fibre level as well as on a floc level. The effect of fibre flow (shear field) occurring in the forming zone of a roll former has been studied in detail. Basic forming mechanisms on floc scale has been investi- gated, and the effect of running parameters like dewatering pressure and jet-to-wire speed difference as well as the fibre type and concentration of the pulp suspension has been evaluated. It is evident that floc elongation increases with shear rate (jet-to-wire speed difference) and lower dewatering rate. The latter is because the fibre floc is subjected to the shear field longer due to slower immobilisation. Shorter fibre tends to create weaker networks, which promotes a higher elongation of the flocs. / QC 20100901

During kraft cooking a significant part of the wood material, especially lignin and hemicelluloses, is degraded and dissolved in the cooking liquor, rendering a broad range of degradation products with different molecular mass and functional groups. The main part of this thesis has been devoted to clarify the role of these dissolved wood components (DWC) during kraft cooking. The investigations have covered their influence on e.g. the delignification rate, pulp yield, point of defibration, unbleached pulp c olour and pulp bleachability, i.e. the amount of bleaching chemicals consumed per kappa number or lignin unit to reach a certain brightness. Both softwood (Picea Abies) and hardwood (Eucalyptus urograndis) have been studied. During kraft cooking, many reactions occur simultaneously. Therefore emphasis has been put on separating the effects of hydroxide ions, hydrogen sulphide ions, sodium ions and DWC. This has been enabled by the use of a so called constant-composition-cooking technique, which enables the use of almost constant concentrations of the cooking chemicals during the cook and also results in a very low concentration of DWC in the cooking liquor. The presence of DWC has been controlled by the addition of industrial black liquor. To further scrutinise the role of DWC, the effect of different molecular mass fractions were studied and representative model substances were used to clarify the origin of the observed effects. A kinetic study showed that the delignification rate was significantly affected by the presence of DWC in the cooking liquor and resulted in a rate increase in the part of the cook where the bulk phase dominates and a decreased delignification rate when the residual phase dominates. The increase in delignification rate was dependent on the concentration of DWC and was observed in softwood as well as hardwood kraft cooks. The rate increasing effect was investigated further by the use of ultra- and nanofiltra tion. This way the DWC was divided into fractions with different molecular mass distributions. The results showed that the increase in delignification rate related more strongly to the content of free phenolic groups in the DWC than on the total amount of DWC. By cooking in the presence of representative model substances the effect was further clarified. Aromatic structures with free phenolic groups gave a rate increasing effect while no visible effect could be seen from other structures. This supports the finding that the delignification rate relates to the amount of free phenols in the cooking liquor and shows that the phenolic functionality take active part in the delignification reactions. Free phenolic groups in the degraded lignin may explain a large part of the rate increasing effect seen from the presence of DWC. Further, the presence of DWC increased the point of defibration in a eucalyptus kraft cook and made it possible to terminate the cook at a higher kappa number with the same amount of reject. By terminating the cook at a higher kappa number it was possible to noticeably increase the fully bleached pulp yield. The content of hexenuronic acids (HexA) in the eucalyptus pulp depends on the H-factor and increases with delignification, providing that the bulk phase still dominates. Therefore, by increasing the rat e of delignification and terminating the cook at a higher kappa number it was possible to significantly decrease the amount of HexA in the pulp. The presence of DWC causes a darkening of the unbleached pulp. Bleachability in a D(EOP)DD sequence was negatively affected by the presence of DWC during pulping of softwood, while no effect was seen on the bleachability of hardwood / QC 20100920

In previous studies on suction box dewatering, three mechanisms were identified that determine the dry content of a web, viz. web compression, displacement of water by air and rewetting. In the present work, the relative importance of the three mechanisms was investigated through direct measurement of the web deformation, the dry content changes during and after the suction pulse, the air flow through the fibre network and the saturation of the web after the suction pulse. Suction pressure, suction time and rewetting time were varied. The experiments were done with chemical and mechanical pulp webs of various grammages. It was found that a large web deformation took place during the suction pulse, particularly at its beginning. Compression dewatering was found to be the most dominant dewatering mechanism. Displacement dewatering started after most of the web compression had occurred. Its contribution to the increase in dry content was most pronounced for higher suction pressures, longer suction times and for chemical pulp webs. A surprisingly large expansion of the web was observed immediately after the suction pulse. This expansion was the effect of rewetting. This rewetting strongly reduced the dry content of the web if the web had not been immediately separated from the forming fabric at the end of the suction pulse. Under the conditions studied, the decrease in dry content amounted to the order of 3 to 6 %. Rewetting was smaller for longer suction times and higher suction pressures. A considerable air flow through the web occurred under these conditions. This air flow apparently moved water from the forming fabric into the suction box, thus making less water available for rewetting. Rewetting for mechanical pulp webs was more pronounced and took place faster than for chemical pulps. The use of a membrane on top of the web during suction box dewatering proved to be advantageous for reducing the air flow through the web. However, under the conditions investigated, the dry content could not be improved. Although the web compression was increased when using a membrane, especially at a higher suction pressure, rewetting after the suction pulse had an even larger negative impact on the dry content, which, as a result, was lower. / QC 20100924

In conventional viscose manufacturing, a large amount of carbondisulfide is consumed. This amount has to be decreased to keep the production cost down and to reduce the environmental impact. The purpose with this work was to show if an enzyme treatment of a dissolving pulp could increase the degree of substitution in the viscose so that the amount of carbon disulfide consumed in the process could be decreased. Previous investigations by Kvarnlöf (2007), Engström et.al. (2006) and Henriksson et.al. (2005) has shown that the reactivity of a dissolving pulp (the cellulose raw material) increased when it was pre-treated with endoglucanase (enzyme). Kvarnlöf (2007) also showed that the amount of carbon disulfide that is needed to produce an ordinary viscose (in this work a more viscous viscose has been investigated) could be reduced with one third because of the enzyme treatment.   In this thesis, viscose has been manufactured in a laboratory where the process has been adapted to look like the industrial as far as possible. Analyses were done on the viscose viscosity and degree of substitution. A reference curve was made with the percentage carbon disulfide load versus the viscose gamma number (degree of substitution). Then it was investigated how an enzyme treatment of the dissolving pulp affected the viscose. After the enzyme treatment, the manufacturing process for viscose was done in the exact same way as when the reference tests were done. The enzyme used in this thesis was Carezyme which contents endoglucanase. Then the results from the analyses of the viscose manufactured from enzyme treated dissolving pulp and the reference curve was compared. A positive result would have been that viscose manufactured with enzyme treatment gets a higher gamma number than viscose, with the same load of carbon disulfide, manufactured in the regular way.   The results showed that the degree of substitution had no effect at all; the viscose that has been manufactured from enzyme treated dissolving pulp resulted in gamma numbers on or very close to the reference curve. The only effect that could be shown was a decrease in viscosity, which unfortunately was an unwanted effect. The enzyme treatment has also hampered the process, where shorter fibres among other things have given poorer dewatering properties. Analyses on the viscose manufactured in the laboratory showed that it didn't have the same characteristics as viscose manufactured in a plant. / I den konventionella tillverkningsprocessen för viskos förbrukas stora mängder koldisulfid. Denna mängd behöver minskas, både för att hålla nere produktionskostnaderna men också för att minska miljöpåverkan. Syftet med arbetet var att undersöka om en enzymbehandling av en dissolvingmassa kunde öka substitutionsgraden så att koldisulfid-förbrukningen skulle kunna minskas. Det har i flera tidigare undersökningar av Kvarnlöf (2007), Engström m.fl. (2006) och Henriksson m.fl. (2005) visats att reaktiviteten hos en dissolvingmassa (råvaran i viskosprocessen) ökar när den förbehandlats med endoglukanas (enzym). Kvarnlöf (2007) visade dessutom att mängden koldisulfid som behövdes för att tillverka spinnviskos (i detta examensarbete har en viskösare viskos undersökts) kunde minskas med en tredjedel tack vare enzymbehandlingen.   I detta examensarbete har viskos tillverkats i laboratoriet där processen har anpassats så att den liknar den industriella så mycket som möjligt. Analyser gjordes på viskosens viskositet och substitutionsgrad. En referenskurva tillverkades där den procentuella koldisulfid-satsningen plottades mot viskosens gammatal (substitutionsgraden). Därefter undersöktes hur en enzymbehandling av dissolvingmassan påverkade den färdiga viskosen. Efter enzymbehandlingen av dissolvingmassan utfördes tillverkningsprocessen precis som vanligt för att man skulle kunna se effekterna av enzymet. Enzymet som användes i arbetet var enzympreparationen Carezyme som innehåller endoglukanas. Sedan jämfördes resultaten från analyserna av viskosen tillverkad från enzymbehandlad dissolvingmassa med referensvärdena. Ett positivt resultat hade varit att enzymbehandlad viskos hade ett högre gammatal än viskos tillverkad på vanligt sätt utan enzymförbehandling men med samma koldisulfidsats.   Resultaten visar att substitutionsgraden inte har påverkats alls, dvs. den viskos som tillverkats från enzymbehandlad dissolvingmassa fick gammatal som låg på eller mycket nära referenskurvan. Den enda effekt av enzymet som kunde visas var en viskositetssänkning, vilket inte var något som eftersträvades. Processen har dessutom försvårats av enzymsteget, där kortare fibrer bl.a. gav sämre avvattningsegenskaper. Viskosanalyser har visat att viskosen som tillverkats på laboratoriet inte har samma egenskaper som viskos tillverkad på fabrik.

Papers are coated in order to improve the properties of the surface, to improve printability and to include new functionalities like barriers properties. Typical coating formulation contains a high number of components, some are made from minerals and others are manufactured from petroleum. The barrier properties of today's paper based packages are plastics and/or aluminum             foil. Environmentally friendly substitutie of these nonrenewable materials are needed.  Nanocellulose is a promising material                 and of a growing interest as an alternative to petroleum-based materials, since nanocellulose films/coatings have been shown to have excellent mechanical and barrier properties.   This project aimed to evaluate nanocellulose in combination with minerals in paper coatings. The project had two approaches. One was to evaluate the barrier properties of MFC coatings with mineral included. The second part was about coatings for           printing matters, and evaluation of the possibility to replace petroleum-based binders in the coating color with MFC. Barrier properties were evaluated by measuring the air permeability of the coatings. The properties of the coating affecting the         printability in offset printing examined was the surface energy, the gloss, the roughness of the coatings, the strength and the offset ink setting.   Carboxymethylated nanocellulose formed denser films and had superior barrier properties compared with enzymatically pretreated nanocellulose. Adding of minerals did not affect the barrier properties of the MFC coatings to a significant extent.         Therefore, minerals cannot be added to enhance the barrier but it can be added to reduce the cost of the coating process without losing any barrier properties.                                 The print quality depends on how the ink interacts with the coating. These coatings did have a relatively high surface energy, which is preferable for printing with waterborne ink. It was also shown that the absorption abilities increased when the amount of MFC was increased. However, offset printing demands high surface strength and addition of MFC in the coating color                     drastically decreased the strength. This means that the coatings produced in this work are not strong enough and thereby not           suitable for offset printing. However other printing technologies put lower demand on surface strength and are still possible.

<p>One of the major cost factors in mechanical pulp production is the electrical energy input. Much of the research in this field has therefore been devoted to an understanding of the mechanisms in the refining process and, consequently, to find ways of reducing the electrical energy consumption. Shear and compression are probably the main types of fibre deformation occurring in refiners for collapsing and fibrillating the fibres into a suitable pulp. In current refiners, the repeated mechanical action of the bars on the fibres consumes large amounts of energy in a treatment of mechanical fibres that is almost random.</p><p>Fundamental studies of the deformation of wood have indicated that a combination of shearing and compression forces is highly beneficial in terms of fibre deformation with a low energy demand. Pure compression is able to permanently deform the fibre but requires a substantial amount of work, while pure shearing, although being much less energy demanding, does not lead to any permanent deformations. A more suitable application of the shear and compression forces on the wood fibres during the refining process could be a way to develop fibres at a lower energy demand. These ideas have been studied in this work trying to find new ways of saving energy in the mechanical pulping process.</p><p>The first paper in this thesis discusses the way of producing wood shavings and the introduction of shear/compression deformations in these, as well as the potential benefits of using them instead of wood chips as raw material for TMP production. With the shaving process, high deformations in the wood cells were achieved by the shear and compression forces. This led to energy savings of about 25% at a given tensile index, when compared to traditional chips. The quality of the pulp produced from wood shavings was found to be better than that of the pulp produced from wood chips, when it came to strength properties (except for tear index) and optical properties at comparable energy levels.</p><p>Another way of reducing energy consumption in refining involving a limited shear combined with compression forces for the mechanical treatment of both wood chips and coarse fibres was also studied. This work shows that such a kind of treatment resulted in a high degree of fibre collapse at low energy demands. The thick-walled transition fibres could even be permanently deformed. Furthermore, refining trials, utilising shear and compression pre-treated chips, showed that the strength properties, except for tear index, along with the optical properties of a TMP could be improved and the electrical energy consumed could be reduced by approx. 100 kWh/tonne, when compared to untreated chips.</p><p>The results from the pilot trials described in this work could be used as a starting point for further implementation in the industry, in order to identify the most efficient way of producing mechanical pulp with a lower consumption of electrical energy.</p>

The aim of this thesis is to use differential analysis and finite volume method (FVM) to model and analyze a continuous pulp digester in order to create a detailed picture of the flow behaviour and chemical reactions in the digester. This information will be used to optimize wood chip flow and reactions and to diagnose and avoid faults such as hang-ups and channelling. As digesters increase in size, the importance of control of the liquor flow in the wood chip bed also increases. Pulping reactors are often faced with production disturbances that cause reduced fibre quality, non-uniform chemical reactions and damaging channelling phenomena. The models that are proposed in this thesis aim to consider the fluid dynamics, thermodynamics and chemical reactions together in order to create a model with more detail than has been previously reported. The digester is of the continuous type and has a circular cross-section, with a height of 60 m and a diameter that increases stepwise from 6 m at the top to 7 m at the bottom. The geometry of the digester, including an internal pipe with three different diameters, three inlet flows at three levels of the digester, inlets and outlets at the top and bottom, and a number of peripheral circulation pipes connected to the screens at three levels, is represented in simulations by a 2D axisymmetric model constructed in Gambit. The interactions between the two phases - the wood chips and the alkaline liquor - are studied using the finite volume method (FVM). Eulerian and Mixture numerical methods are evaluated for solving a mass transfer multiphase model with a porous matrix, species transport and reaction system in FLUENT. Variable porosity is used to model channelling in the digester. Comparisons of the results of simulations with real digester data indicate that the multiphase model, with the species transport and mass transfer modules accurately predict the pulping chemical reactions inside the digester and are able to evaluate pulp quality. The species transport model with reaction scheme is able to predict the mass balance equation and stoichiometry of the pulping reaction. The porous media scheme complements this approach to give a more complete view of pulp production, including the effect of faults in the process. The approaches to the FVM described in this thesis enable an accurate view of the pulping process which can contribute to improved control and optimization of the process. / CFD modellering av hydrodynamiska och kemiska reaktioner i massakokare Huvudsyftet med denna avhandling har varit att utveckla en numerisk modell som kan användas för att simulera och styra massatillverkningsprocessen. En finit volym metod har tillämpats, med hjälp av CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) programmet FLUENT. Även om den kontinuerliga sulfatprocessen är den dominerande kemiska massaprocessen, så är vår kunskap om vad som händer i kokaren med avseende på hydraulik och de kemiska reaktionerna på en relativt låg nivå. Anledningen är att det är mycket svårt att ta ett prov från vilken punkt som helst i kokaren för att göra olika mätningar. Speciellt, hängningar och kanalbildning i kokaren är inte väl förstådd trots att dessa fenomen orsakar betydande produktions- och kvalitetsförluster. Det finns varken en entydig förklaring till eller lösning för hur man skall kunna undvika hängning och kanalbildningar ännu. Genom CFD-simuleringar som utvecklats i denna avhandling kan vi simulera vad som kan antas hända, och hur dessa fenomen kan upptäckas genom att mäta temperaturer, tryck och Kappatal i olika positioner. CFD-modellerna kan beskriva vad som kan hända i kokaren och indirekt skapa en bild av massaprocessen. Förhoppningsvis kan simuleringarna också användas för att undersöka hur man kan motverka störningarna. Storleken på kokare ökar kontinuerligt för att tillgodose högre produktionstakt men storleksökningen gör det samtidigt ännu svårare att hantera kemiska processer inne i kokaren. Det finns både satsvis- och kontinuerliga kokare, men de modernaste är kontinuerliga kokare. Dessa har ofta komplicerade cirkulationsloopar för att kunna hålla rätt förhållande med avseende på temperatur och kemikaliekoncentrationer i olika delar av kokaren.  Problemen med kokare är bland annat ojämn fördelning av vätskeflödet genom flisen, trycket från flispelaren, fliskomprimering, flisrörelse i olika riktningar, heterogena träflisformer (och storlek på bitarna), tvättningseffektivitet, swing mellan olika vedkvaliteter och hängningar av flis längs väggarna. I denna avhandling har en matematisk 3-D modell utvecklats där alla dessa faktorer och fenomen undersöks för att förbättra kunskapen om flödet och de kemiska processerna som gör det möjligt för oss att hantera och optimera produktionen. Genom att simulera olika driftproblem och jämföra simuleringarna med processdata kan vi försöka analysera kemiska processen inne i kokaren. För att kunna kombinera en verklighetsnära simulering med en rimlig tid för att lösa problemet har en Axisymetrisk 2-D struktur använts. Det betyder att man antar att kokaren ser likadan ut i alla riktningar från centrum och utåt.

Cellulosans polymerisationsgrad (DP) är en viktig faktor vid utvärdering av möjligheterna till både mekanisk och kemisk återvinning av bomull. Enligt flera studier leder lägre DP till svagare fibrer. I denna rapport har DP hos bomullsfibrer från begagnade jeans undersökts före och efter mekanisk återvinning för att se om återvinningsprocessen eller graden av slitage på de ingående fibrerna har en påverkan på DP. Även möjligheten att spinna garn med de mekaniskt återvunna fibrerna utblandade med jungfruliga bomullsfibrer har undersökts för att se hur andelen återvunna fibrer och graden av slitage på dessa påverkar garnets styrka. Konsumentavfall i form av bomullsjeans, före och efter mekanisk återvinning,  har lösts i  bis(etylendiamin)kopparhydroxidlösning (Cuen). Viskositeten har mätts och cellulosans polymerisationsgrad har beräknats. Eftersom fibrerna inte löstes upp helt var cellulosakoncentrationen i lösningarna okänd. Därför kunde inga klara slutsatser dras om huruvida den mekaniska återvinningen eller graden av slitage på det ingående materialet hade någon påverkan på DP, även om den statistiska analysen visade på att båda variablerna hade en signifikant påverkan. DP hos återvunna fibrer från begagnade jeans är högre än vad som krävs för framställning av både viskos och lyocell, vilket gör att kemisk återvinning av denna form av konsumentavfall kan vara möjlig att utveckla industriellt. Jungfrulig bomull har ringspunnits tillsammans med 20 % och 50 % återvunna fibrer. Spinningen av garn med 50 % återvunna fibrer var på grund av upprepade garnbrott alltför tidskrävande för vara lämlig för storskalig produktion. Dragstyrkan hos ett ringspunnet bomullsgarn med 20 % återvunna fibrer försämrades inte jämfört med ett garn av 100 % jungfrulig bomull, utan kunde tvärtemot förbättras beroende på spinninställningar och kvaliteten på de återvunna fibrerna. Inblandning av 20 % mindre slitna fibrer gav ett starkare garn än 20 % slitna fibrer. Dock spanns endast en bobin av varje garn och därför krävs en större studie för att få ett större statistiskt underlag innan några mer generella slutsatser kan dras.