Pyrolysis in the Pulp and Paper Industry

Abstract

Analytical pyrolysis is a powerful technique that is seldom used in the pulp and paper industry. This article illustrates the utility of the technique to study the chemistry of wood and pulps, mechanistic aspects of pulping, troubleshooting process upsets in pulp and papermaking, and evaluating the quality of finished products. The technique has advantages over other analytical techniques in that little sample preparation is required and enough data can be obtained from very small amounts such as dirt spots on paper. In many cases good data can be obtained by analyzing the pyrolysis products by gas chromatography (GC) with flame ionization detection (FID). Detection with mass spectrometry (MS) offers the advantage of absolute qualitative and quantitative determination of the chemistry of the analytes. In many instances the chromatography can be improved by on‐line derivatization of the pyrolysis products with an alkylating agent. This article takes the reader through a survey of the different types of analytical pyrolysis systems, through data analysis and processing, and examples of applications of analytical pyrolysis in the pulp and paper industry. Ample illustrations are used to highlight the usefulness of the technique.

Chemotaxonomy of fossil woods from the Lower Rhine Embayment, Germany

“…This results in a ratio of guaiacyl to (guaiacyl + syringyl) moieties from 0.33 to 0.39 for angiosperm wood and 0.99-1.00 for gymnosperm woods (Table 4). The perfect consensus with the ranges provided by Stihole (2000), see above), confirms not only our correct qualitative but especially also our quantitative approach for the three different monolignols. Accordingly, we can recommend applying this ratio -as it is generally done in botanical sciences for various plant differentiationsalso based on CPP/GC-MS, especially for a rapid chemical screening of fossil wood types with unknown botanical classification.…”

“…Based on these criteria, a principal classification of biological materials was also proposed for woods by Suzuki et al (1997). In general, gymnosperms contain about 95% guaiacyl and 1% syringyl moieties, whereas angiosperms contain about 40-60% syringyl moieties (Stihole, 2000). Based on the added relative amounts of 17 components with guaiacyl and 9 components with syringyl building blocks (see Table 2), the pyrograms of CPP/GC-MS analyses confirm these values (Table 4): for the angiosperm Populoxylon samples, we calculated 57-63% syringyl type components (modern reference Populus nigra = 55%), whereas for the gymnosperm samples of Taxodioxylon only contents of 0.04-0.84% (modern reference Sequoia sempervirens = 0.94%) and also for Sciadopityoxylon only 0.84% (modern references Sciatopitys verticillata 0.60% and 1.26%) were determined.…”

Effect of Chirality on π-Stacking in Styrene and Maleimide Alternating Copolymers

“…This composition imparts unusual properties to the polymer, which have generated interest in a wide range of scientific fields. SMA has many applications in the fields of nanotechnology, − drug delivery, , and the pulp and paper industry as a surface sizing agent for paper products. − However, studies involving molecular modeling of the structure of strictly alternating copolymers are rare. Such studies are useful because they provide information at the molecular level, which cannot be readily determined by experiment.…”

Introductory Chapter: Analytical Pyrolysis-Gas Chromatography/ Mass Spectrometry of Polymeric Materials

“…According to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) recommendation, analytical pyrolysis (Py) is defined as the characterization in an inert atmosphere of a material or a chemical process by a chemical degradation reaction(s) induced by thermal energy [1]. Thermal degradation under controlled conditions is often used as a part of an analytical procedure, either to render a sample into a suitable form for subsequent analysis by gas chromatography (GC), mass spectrometry (MS), gas chromatography coupled with the mass spectrometry (GC/ MS), with the Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (GC/FTIR), or by direct monitoring as an analytical technique in its own right [2]. Analytical pyrolysis deals with the structural identification and quantitation of pyrolysis products with the ultimate aim of establishing the identity of the original material and the mechanisms of its thermal decomposition.…”