STRUCTURE AND PROPERTIES OF SOME NATURAL CELLULOSIC FIBRILS

Abstract

This study examines the properties of cellulosic fibrillar fines manufactured from different pulp raw materials, bleached softwood kraft (bswk), themomechanical (TMP), and non-wood sisal. Chemical characterisation showed that the carbohydrate and lignin contents of sisal were between those of bswk and TMP. Sisal was found to contain about three times more calcium than bswk and TMP. Measurements from the immobilization kinetics showed that the solids content after immobilization was highest for the sisal suspension followed by TMP and bswk. This indicates that the dewatering ability of the fines suspension increases in the order bswkTMP>sisal. This is due to the highly fibrillated nature of bswk fines, as illustrated by fibre saturation point (FSP), differential scanning calorimetric (DSC), and hydrodynamic specific volume (HSV) measurements.

Keywords

• Microfibrils
• Fines
• Rheology
• Immobilisation
• Dewatering
• Strength
• Chemcial characterisation