Objective
The aim of the project is to improve the use of Douglas fir wood by developing less polluting pulping processes based on organic solvents which should result in a continuous range of fibres from thermomechanical, chemi-mechanical to semi-chemical pulping.
The ultimate tasks are:
to take away the limitations about the amount of Douglas fir used as pulp wood depending on the brightness and colour aspects;
developing as far as possible an understanding of the chemical structure of the coloured components of the heartwood and the reactions of the colour precursors;
the effective removal of the coloured matter from Douglas fir heartwood to improve final TMP brightness;
the removal of non-extractive components such as polyoses or easily soluble lignin;
to analyse diffusion processes of chemicals into and reaction products out of the wood;
based on the knowledge of the above, to design principles for selective bleaching;
to minimise the charge of polluting non-specific bleaching agents by searching for selective bleaching reagents;
to carry out technical and economic evaluation of the laboratory processes for industrial applications.
Experiments will be done on a laboratory scale. Extractions will be done in autoclaves of different size, from 200 ml to 20 l. Chemical analyses will be done by chromatography (HPLC, GLC, GPC). Pulps produced will be tested according to international standards.
The Department of Forestry of Wageningen University will identify the major coloured components of Doulgas fir heartwood and design principles for a selective bleaching of these components.
The Institut fuer Holzforschung, University of Munich, will conduct solvent treatment experiments to remove Douglas fir heartwood extractives and evaluate the effect of these treatments with respect to thermomechanical pulping.
Parenco will provide commercial know-how, equipment and materials to the partners from the universities.
Fields of science
Topic(s)
Data not availableCall for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
WAGENINGEN
Netherlands