Evaluation of alkaline deconstruction processes for Brazilian new generation of eucalypt clones

Wood utilization for pulp and paper and biorefinery applications requires some kind of mechanical and/or physical–chemical pretreatment. Among the chemical treatments the alkaline ones are the most used worldwide, although acid and solvent treatments have also being used. This paper deals with eucalypt wood deconstruction with alkaline processes including soda-AQ, soda-AQ-O2, soda-O2, and kraft. The kraft process is largely used by the pulp industry and is evaluated here only to serve as a reference. The behavior of the four eucalypt clones selected in chapter 2 were investigated when submitted to the aforementioned processes regarding their screened yield, chemical demands and pulp quality at different kappa number levels (15, 35, 50, and 70). The two most promising processes (kraft and soda-AQ) were chosen for producing pulps (kappa 15 and 20) which were studied in depth (content of carbohydrates, uronic acid, hexenuronic acid, polysaccharide molecular weight, residual lignin structure, etc.), as well as their respective black liquors (heating value, solid content, elemental analysis, and lignin structure). The main findings of this work were: (1) the wood of the four different hybrid eucalypt clones behave similarly in the various alkaline deconstruction treatments; (2) the soda-AQ and Kraft were considered the most suitable processes for producing pulp on the basis of yield, chemical demands and pulp fiber integrity; (3) the soda-AQ process can potentially replace the kraft for a high degree of wood delignification (kappa number 15); (4) the alkaline processes using oxygen (soda-AQ-O2 and soda-O2) are more suitable for wood deconstruction aimed at biofuels; and (5) the soda-AQ process resulted black liquor of more suitable burning characteristics than the kraft.

Funding provided by the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013 under grant agreement no KBBE-2009-3-244362 LignoDeco, from the Minas Gerais State Research Foundation (FAPEMIG) and from the Brazilian National Council for Science and Technology Development (CNPq) is greatly appreciated. The authors also thank Mr. Paulo Parizzi from the Ministry of Agriculture of Brazil for all support in the materials distribution among the authors.

Peer reviewed