Application of surfactants as pulping additives in soda pulping of bagasse

The effects of several non-ionic commercial surfactants and their dosage on soda pulping and ECF bleaching of soda and soda-surfactant pulps of bagasse were investigated. The properties of bleachable pulps obtained with conventional soda and with soda-surfactants were studied and compared. The results showed application of surfactants during the soda pulping of bagasse decreased kappa number and improved the yield and brightness of resulting pulp. Using the surfactants reduced alkali consumption during pulping. The bleaching experiments showed that the pulps obtained with the three types of applied surfactants namely, ELA-2, FAE-20, and PEG1000 could be easily bleached with D0ED1 or D0EpD1 sequences. The addition of most used surfactants in soda pulping of bagasse led to higher brightness in comparison to reference pulp with the same bleaching sequence. Strength properties of bleached pulps obtained with surfactants were higher than the pulp obtained with conventional soda pulping.