Sodium dithionite (Na2S2O4) is a powerful reducing agent. It has therefore been suggested to be used as an additive in kraft pulping to improve the yield. However, sodium dithionite easily decomposes and it is thus important to determine the effect of different conditions. The aim of this thesis has been to investigate the thermal stability of sodium dithionite under anaerobic conditions using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy under different conditions, such as heating temperature, concentration of the solution, heating time and pH. The stability of sodium dithionite was found to decrease with increasing heating temperature, concentration of sodium dithionite, heating time and pH. Sodium dithionite was found to be relatively stable at moderate alkaline pH:s 11.5 and 12.5, while a rapid decrease in stability with time was noted at higher heating temperatures and concentrations of sodium dithionite. Based on this study on the thermal stability of sodium dithionite, the following conditions are suggested as the most promising, when adding sodium dithionite to the kraft cooking as an additive; pH 12.5, with 0.4 M concentration of the solution, at a heating temperature of 100 °C.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:kth-197370 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Vegunta, Vijaya Lakshmi |
| Publisher | KTH, Fiber- och polymerteknologi |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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