The influence of alkali charge and temperature in the kraft cook on the QPQP bleachability and the kappa number composition of birch pulp

The main objective of this investigation was to study how the alkali charge and the temperature in the kraft cook influence the QPQP bleachability of oxygen-delignified birch pulp. The bleachability was evaluated as the normalised consumption of bleaching chemicals required to reach a certain light absorption coefficient of the pulp. All the pulps had a kappa number of about 17 after the cook and a kappa number of about 10 after oxygen delignification. The alkali charge significantly affected the bleachability and the best bleachability was obtained for an intermediate level alkali charge ([HO-](initial)=1,35 mol/L, corresponding to an effective alkali charge of 21.6% on wood). An increase in cooking temperature gave only a slight increase in bleachability. The contributions to the kappa number of lignin, hexenuronic acids (HexA) and other non-lignin structures were also investigated. Lignin contributed to about 60% of the kappa number in pulps after the cook, to about 40% in pulps after the oxygen delignification, and to about 30% after QPQP bleaching. Hexenuronic acids contributed between 3.7 to 4.7 kappa number units in all pulps, which makes them the largest contributors to the kappa number in oxygen-delignified and QPQP bleached pulps. Other non-lignin structures, were contributing about 3 kappa number units in pulps after the cook, but decreased to less than I kappa number unit after QPQP bleaching. No great differences in the composition of the kappa number could be seen between pulps produced under different pulping conditions, except that there was a somewhat lower hexenuronic acid content in the pulps produced with the highest alkali charge or at the highest cooking temperature.