Feasibility of Substituting Soda Pulping with High Consistency Kneaded Chemi Mechanical Pulping for Discarded Oyster Farming Bamboo Scaffolding

Abstract

Discarded oyster farming bamboo scaffolding (BS) has the potential to be applied to pulping and papermaking. Thus, this study aims to develop a chemi-mechanical pulping process for the BS with lower chemical and temperature demands through a high-consistency kneader to enhance the feasibility of greener production development. This study applies a factorial experimental design to assess the impact of thermo-alkali pretreating conditions (temperature and NaOH dosage) by analyzing pulping yield, freeness, fiber appearance, and handsheet properties. After the factorial analysis, the temperature and NaOH dosage of thermo-alkali pretreatment both significantly affect the pulp properties, the condition with 125℃ and 7.5% NaOH dosage has the highest accepts ratio, the best capacity of fiber refining, and handsheet properties. Further compared with soda pulping, the kneading process developed by this study can produce a similar fiber to soda pulp and has a higher pulping yield. In summary, the chemi-mechanical pulping process through a high-consistency kneader has a greener process that can promote the application of the BS in pulping and papermaking.