The origin of fibre charge in chemical pulp

Sammanfattning: Chemical components in wood contain multiple anionic groups, including carboxyl groups and hydroxyl groups. During kraft cooking and bleaching, such structures are also formed, degraded or modified by the action of reactions both deliberate and unwanted. It has previously been found by Laine that anionic groups with pKa values of 3.3 and 5.5 can explain the observed anionic charge on chemical fibres, corresponding to carboxylic acids on hemicelluloses as well as oxidized lignin structures, respectively. It has further been found that most of the fibre charge can be accounted for through the contribution from methylglucuronic acids as well as hexenuronic acids. This study aimed to provide additional information regarding the charge component unaffiliated with either of the aforementioned uronic acids by studying kraft pulps procured from an industrial kraft mill corresponding to unit operations through a fibreline using the ODHot(EOP)D1D2 bleaching sequence. Each sample had its total charge determined by means of conductometric titration, its content of methylglucuronic acid determined by means of methanolysis followed by GC, and its content of hexenuronic acids determined by means of the HUT-method for the determination of hexenuronic acids, followed by either UV absorbance measurements or calculations based on the reduction in kappa number during the selective acid hydrolysis. The lignin content was determined by means of kappa number analysis as well as by calculations based on the kappa number after selective acid hydrolysis, which was assumed to be characteristic of the kappa number addition from the lignin content of the samples. The hexenuronic acid content was successfully determined according to the HUT-method. A difference in content was observed when results for the unbleached and oxygen delignified samples that was obtained from UV measurements were compared with the observed difference in kappa number prior and after selective acid hydrolysis for said samples. In both cases, the results based on the difference in kappa number was higher. No correlation between remaining charge and lignin content could be made. It was instead observed that individual bleaching steps had binary effects on each of the analysed components of the fibre charge. A significant increase in charge unaffiliated with methylglucuronic acid or hexenuronic acid was observed during the EOP step, indicating an oxidation of chemical structures in the pulp: this effect could not be correlated to lignin content.