High-purity cellulose production from birch wood by γ-valerolactone/water fractionation and IONCELL-P process. (15th July 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Shokri, Shokoufeh; Hedjazi, Sahab; Lê, Huy Quang; Abdulkhani, Ali; Sixta, Herbert
• Is Part Of: Carbohydrate polymers. Volume 288(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-07-15
• Subjects: Organosolv process -- Dissolving pulp -- Cellulose -- GVL; Polysaccharides -- Periodicals; Polysaccharides -- Periodicals; Polysaccharides -- Périodiques; Electronic journals; 547.78
• DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2022.119364
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0144-8617

Abstract

Abstract: This study presents an environmentally friendly process to produce high-purity cellulose (dissolving pulp) from birch wood by combining γ-valerolactone (GVL)/water fractionation and ionic liquid treatment of pulp, IONCELL-P (IP). A paper grade pulp was produced from optimal GVL cook with a similar composition to birch kraft pulp and was bleached with ECF sequence before the hemicelluloses were removed using the IONCELL-P process. The purity of the GVL-IP pulp significantly exceeded that of commercial prehydrolysis kraft (PHK) and prehydrolysis soda-anthraquinone (PH-Soda-AQ) pulps. IONCELL-P extraction removed more than 90% of the hemicelluloses, resulting in a dissolving pulp with a purity of 96% and a high molecular mass fraction, 2.3 times higher than that of a conventional PHK pulp. GVL-IP pulps are suitable not only for regenerated cellulose fibers or films, but also for high-purity, high-viscosity cellulose acetate and ethers, which cannot be produced in an environmentally friendly way by conventional processes. Graphical abstract: Unlabelled Image