Precipitation of Extractives onto Kraft Pulps during Black Liquor Recycling in Extended Delignification Process

Our objective was to study the extractives content and the bleachability of batch extended delignified kraft pulps during the black liquor recycling. Extractives accumulated in the black liquor during the black liquor recycling. Some of the extractives in the black liquor precipitated on the pulps in the pretreatment stage, which affected the bleachability of pulps. For softwood, after 5 stages of black liquor recycling, the extractive content of the kraft pulps increased by up to 4 times and the final brightness decreased up to 2.4% ISO. The amount of extractives precipitating on the pulps strongly depended on the final pH of the pretreatment black liquor, which was determined by the operating conditions such as sulfidity, alkali charge, and pretreatment temperature. High alkalinity and low pretreatment temperature was the most efficient combination to minimize extractives from precipitating, and to maintain high bleachability of the kraft pulps. For hardwood, large amounts of extractives precipitated onto fibers, and the extractive content, especially the neutral extractive content, of the hardwood kraft pulps was high. During the black liquor recycling, the drop of the final brightness of hardwood kraft pulps was larger than that of the softwood kraft pulps.