Visualisation of sulphur on single fibre level for pulping industry

TL;DR

This study develops a novel X-ray fluorescence microscopy technique to visualize and quantify sulphur distribution on single wood fibres, aiming to improve the uniformity of sulphonation in the pulp industry.

Contribution

The paper introduces a feasible uXRF imaging method for measuring sulphur homogeneity on individual wood fibres at a 15 um resolution.

Findings

uXRF imaging can distinguish sulphonated from non-sulphonated fibres

Significant sulphur concentration differences observed in fibre shells

Technique suitable for on-site sulphur homogeneity assessment

Abstract

In the pulp and paper industry, about 5 Mt/y chemithermomechanical pulp (CTMP) are produced globally from softwood chips for production of carton board grades. For tailor making CTMP for this purpose, wood chips are impregnated with aqueous sodium sulphite for sulphonation of the wood lignin. When lignin is sulphonated, the defibration of wood into pulp becomes more selective, resulting in enhanced pulp properties. On a microscopic fibre scale, however, one could strongly assume that the sulphonation of the wood structure is very uneven due to its macroscale size of wood chips. If this is the case and the sulphonation could be done significantly more evenly, the CTMP process could be more efficient and produce pulp even better suited for carton boards. Therefore, the present study aimed to develop a technique based on X-ray fluorescence microscopy imaging (uXRF) for quantifying the sulphur distribution on CTMP wood fibres. The feasibility of uXRF imaging for sulphur homogeneity measurements in wood fibres needs investigation. Clarification of which spatial and spectral resolution that allows visualization of sulphur impregnation into single wood fibres is needed. Measurements of single fibre imaging were carried out at the APS synchrotron facility. With a synchrotron beam using 1 um scanning step, images of elemental mapping are acquired from CTMP samples diluted with non-sulphonated pulp under specified conditions. Since the measurements show significant differ-ences between sulphonated and non-sulphonated fibres, and a significant peak concentration in the shell of the sulphonated fibres, the proposed technique is found to be feasible. The required spatial resolution of the uXRF imaging for an on-site CTMP sulphur homogeneity measurement setup is about 15 um, and the homogeneity measured along the fibre shells is suggested to be used as the CTMP sulphonation measurement parameter.