Five years old Eucalyptus pellita is a raw material used to manufacture pulp in Indonesia. In the field, the cropping cycle of this wood is still considered too long, so the need to develop other alternative raw materials that have characteristics similar to the fiber planting a shorter cycle. One of the alternative raw materials is abaca fiber (Musa textilis). Abaca fiber is preferred over other fibers because of its good tensile strength and resistance to rotting. In the present work, delignification of abaca fiber was carried out by kraft pulping process and characterized in term of their mechanical properties. Abaca fibers were treated with kraft pulping and oxygen delignification. Eucalyptus kraft pulp was also characterized as a comparison. Kappa number and viscosity decreased when the active alkali charge increased. Kraft pulp abaca with high cooking results and good viscosity is easily delignified by converting oxygen to low kappa numbers (7-9) without significant loss in viscosity. In addition, from the final results, the kappa number and viscosity, it was shown that abaca pulp has very high strength. Although oxygen delignification for lower kappa quantities can be considered, in terms of the properties of the pulp the abaca fiber is suitable as a raw material for pulp.

Abaca banana fiber (Musa textilis) is a source of non-wood fiber that can be used as material in the manufacture of pulp. Oxygen delignification is a process to reduce lignin content in pulp with Kappa numbers as parameters. In addition, carbohydrate degradation also occurs which is indicated by the value of viscosity. The purpose of this study is to predict the decrease in Kappa number, to predict carbohydrate degradation, and to determine the best operating condition based on prediction data obtained from the kinetic reaction model. Comparison between experimental data and prediction data was also analyzed. The prediction of Kappa number was started by developing kinetic model of oxygen delignification from experimental data, in which the rate of Kappa number reduction is dependent to temperature, hydroxy ion concentration, and oxygen pressure with specific reaction order of each species. Similar steps were done for predicting carbohydrate degradation. Prediction of Kappa number and carbohydrate degradation was done at various operating conditions, which are: oxygen pressures (2–5 bar), temperatures (70–100 oC), sodium hydroxide concentrations (NaOH) (1–5%), and heating times (0–120 min). The prediction results showed that the best operating conditions were at pressure of 2 bar, temperature of 85°C, 1% of NaOH for 56.6 min with a viscosity of 878.52 ml/g. This study also performed that the experimental data were fitted well with the prediction data.

As more delignification is targeted, fiber degradation becomes a main issue in the pulping process. Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is highly related to pulp quality in the medium consistency oxygen delignification process. Accordingly, the purpose of this research was to study the effect of NaOH charges and reaction time on reaction selectivity during the pulping process through medium consistency oxygen delignification. This research used Eucalyptus pelita and Acacia mangium pulp with a kappa number (KaNo) of 17-18. The medium consistency oxygen delignification process condition included a temperature of 80°C and oxygen pressure of 1 bar, while the reaction times were 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 min. The NaOH charges were 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 kg/t of pulp. The analysis parameters used were KaNo and viscosity. The variation in reaction time did not show a significant change in KaNo. The increase in reaction time and NaOH charge variations, meanwhile, can reduce pulp viscosity. Higher NaOH values significantly increased the delignification degree, and the higher NaOH charges and reaction times together lowered the degree of polymerization (DP). The variation in reaction time indicated that with a longer reaction time, the lower the DP, and with a higher NaOH charge and longer reaction time, the lower the reaction selectivity.

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