Raymond C. Francis

Mechanistic differences between kraft and soda/AQ pulping. Part 2: Results from lignin model compounds.

Abstract Data accumulated in our laboratory from the cooking of chips and bleaching of resulting pulps consistently pointed to a higher rate of lignin condensation during soda-AQ (SAQ) as compared to kraft pulping. The data also appear to indicate that the rate of condensation was higher at lower alkalinity and that the higher concentration of condensed structures in SAQ pulps is likely responsible for their poorer bleachability. Alkaline condensation reactions were investigated with four commercially available lignin model compounds: apocynol (AP), ethylguaiacol (EG), homovanillyl alcohol (HVA), and vinylguaicol (VG). The investigation of lignin model compounds (LMCs) indicated mechanistic differences that would explain the higher rate of lignin condensation for SAQ pulping as compared to the kraft pulping. Several research groups have reported that the rate of formation of coniferyl alcohol (CA) is 4–5 times higher for SAQ or kraft/AQ as compared to kraft pulping. The present investigation showed that secondary quinone methides from CA degradation products, such as vinylguaicol, participate in condensation reactions. A higher rate of condensation was observed in 0.1 M NaOH as compared to 0.6 M NaOH. Evidence was also found for carbohydrate-rich materials condensing with quinone methides.

Mechanistic Differences Between Kraft and Soda/AQ Pulping. Part 1: Results from Wood Chips and Pulps

Abstract Soda pulping catalyzed by anthraquinone (AQ) or 2-methylanthraquinone (MAQ) can produce hardwood chemical pulps similar to kraft pulps in all respect but for bleachability. Results accumulated in our laboratory suggest that the residual lignin in pulps from anthraquinone catalyzed processes is less reactive toward bleaching chemicals than that in kraft pulps. Analyses of pulps by periodate and permanganate oxidations suggest that the residual lignin from the non-sulfur processes contained more condensed structures than kraft residual lignin. The low reactivity of these structures is believed to be responsible for the lower brightness of bleached soda-AQ (SAQ) pulps. Pulping and bleaching trials with hardwood chips demonstrated that shortening of the cooking time and/or increasing the alkalinity is one strategy for improving bleachability of SAQ pulps. When sugar maple (Acer saccharum) chips were SAQ cooked for 1.0 and 2.0 h at 165°C, the higher kappa number pulp produced after 1.0 h of cooking bleached to a significantly higher brightness with a small increase in the chlorine dioxide application.

Preliminary Results on an Approach for the Quantification of Lignin-Carbohydrate Complexes (LCC) in Hardwood Pulps

Abstract The literature on biomass research contains many references to lignin-carbohydrate complexes (LCC) decreasing the rate of delignification in chemical pulp production, decreasing the yield of cellulosic ethanol via fermentation, and decreasing forage digestibility. However, it is difficult to find correlations between rates of the processes above and initial LCC concentration. One of the main reasons for the lack of such correlations is the absence of methods for accurate quantification of LCC. In this investigation, repeatable and reproducible determinations of bound sugars at monomeric concentrations as low as 0.3 wt% on enzymatic lignin (EL) have been achieved. The bound sugars are hydrolyzed by H2SO4, most likely as low molecular weight oligomers. In the same H2SO4 treatment, the oligomers are hydrolyzed to monomers which are subsequently quantified by 1H NMR analyses. A significant enrichment of bound arabinan was previously reported when a crude milled wood lignin (MWL) was compared to the starting wood meal. A similar arabinan enrichment was observed for ELs from kraft and soda-AQ (SAQ) pulps in the present study. Also, well-resolved cross-peaks have been obtained in 2D HSQC NMR analyses of ELs. It has so far been confirmed that the EL from a 30.6 kappa number SAQ pulp from sugar maple contained ∼30% more benzyl ethers linked to primary-OH groups in sugar units than the corresponding EL from a 33.7 kappa number kraft pulp.

Soda/AQ Pulping of a Hardwood with Trapping of the Generated Coniferyl Alcohol

Abstract Coniferyl alcohol is generated from the cleavage of β-O-4 bonds during alkaline pulping of hardwoods and softwoods. Once formed, some of the coniferyl alcohol (CA) is transformed into vinylguaiacol (VG) and isoeugenol (IE). All three of these compounds (CA, VG, and IE) can rearrange to quinone methides (QMs) under alkaline conditions and become involved in condensation reactions with lignin and carbohydrate moieties. The aim of this investigation was to see if ethylguaiacol (EG) addition to soda-AQ (SAQ) pulping systems would lead to its reaction with the QMs from CA, VG, and IE to form dimers that are unreactive towards further condensation. Sugar maple wood meal was delignified by the SAQ process with EG added at 5.0 wt% on wood meal. Three dimers were detected in the pulping effluent and identified as a combination of EG with CA, VG, and IE. The total yield of the three dimers corresponded to ∼80% of the estimated CA that would have been generated. Conventional kraft, SAQ, and SAQ+EG pulping of the maple chips were then performed. The bleachability of the SAQ+EG pulp was significantly improved as compared to the SAQ pulp and it was estimated to be superior to the kraft pulp as well.

Mechanistic Differences Between Kraft and Soda-AQ Pulping of Hardwoods with Regard to Lignin–Carbohydrate Complexes (LCC)

The literature on biomass research contains many references to lignin–carbohydrate complexes (LCC) decreasing the rate of delignification in chemical pulping, decreasing the yield of cellulosic ethanol via fermentation, and decreasing forage digestibility. Regarding wood delignification, there are a few reports on the formation and/or cleavage of lignin–carbohydrate (L–C) bonds during alkaline pulping. The behavior of LCC was investigated to find a potential explanation for the differences between the soda-anthraquinone (soda-AQ or SAQ) and kraft processes with regard to delignification rate in the residual phase of pulping and in the bleaching process. Enzymatically isolated lignin (EL) was prepared from two soda, nine SAQ, and twelve kraft pulps from sugar maple, a hardwood. The range of kappa numbers, after correction for hexenuronic acid (HexA), was 10–60. The bound sugars on each EL were hydrolyzed and converted to monomers by H2SO4 at 121°C. There was evidence in the data suggesting that the bound glucan and xylan on the ELs from soda, SAQ, and kraft pulps were native to the wood. The bound galactan data were somewhat ambiguous, and there was no detection of bound mannan on any EL. The reproducibility and repeatability of bound arabinan attached to ELs (BA) were excellent. Although not conclusive, the totality of the data is suggestive of both L–C bond formation and cleavage involving arabinose units during both kraft and SAQ pulping. There was no decrease in BA when SAQ was used to lower the c-kappa number (HexA-corrected) from ∼60 to ∼25. The case was similar when kraft was used in the range of ∼60 to ∼40. However, there were significant decreases in BA content when c-kappa number was lowered below ∼25 by both SAQ and kraft. A common mechanism was proposed to explain essentially no decrease in BA content at higher kappa numbers, but distinctly different mechanisms were proposed to explain BA cleavage at c-kappa number <25. A mechanism favorable to subsequent bleaching was proposed for kraft, but an unfavorable mechanism was proposed for SAQ.