Recovery of lignin from Kraft black liquor in the methods oxygen and carbon dioxide pretreatment from hardwood Kraft black liquor

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Ph.D. Student

2 Associate Professor, Department of Wood and Paper, Faculty of Natural Resources, Sari University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Iran

Abstract

Black liquors are produced as a byproduct of chemical pulping and About 500 million tons of black liquor are produced annually in pulp mills around the world, of which about 95% for fuel consumption and only 2% for the production of special products with higher added value are used. In order to recover more effectively, acidic precipitation of black liquor using gas injection pretreatment has been studied recently. Previous studies have shown the advantage of carbon dioxide injection as pretreatment to reduce sulfuric acid consumption, increase yield and purity of lignin. The Iranian’s pulp and paper mills have the potential to recover lignin, which is burned as fuel. Therefore, this study was performed to investigate new methods of lignin recovery on hardwood Kraft black liquor in Iran. Pretreatment was done using carbon dioxide injection in lignoboost method as well as two-stage oxygen-carbon dioxide injection in Lignoforce method under 2 bar pressure and 80 ° C on Kraft black liquor, Then, the pH was decreased to 2-3 using 6 M sulfuric acid to precipitate the lignin, which was then separated by filtration and washed with water. Finally, the recovered lignin was dried at 50º C. TGA, FTIR, SEM and AFM tests were performed to evaluate the thermal stability, chemical structure, morphology and dimensions of recovered lignin. Also, acid consumption, yield and ash content were calculated. The amount of acid consumed and the ash percentage of lignin recovered from gas injection processes was less than the non-injection method. In addition, the oxygen-carbon dioxide injection method showed higher efficiency compared to the carbon dioxide injection. FTIR results demonstrated a similar chemical structure in the recovered lignin. AFM and SEM images of lignin produced by pretreatment with carbon dioxide injection showed larger particles as well as higher thermal stability compared to oxygen-carbon dioxide injection.

Keywords

References

[1] Mousavioun, P. and Doherty, W.O.S., 2020. Chemical and thermal properties of fractionated bagasse soda lignin. Industrial crops and products, 31(1):52-58
[2] Duval, A., and Lawoko, M., 2014. A review on lignin-based polymeric, micro and nano-structured materials. Reactive & Functional Polymers, 85:78-96.
[3] Gao, Y., Qu, W., Liu,Y.,  Hu,H.,  Cochran, E. and Bai, X., 2019. Agricultural residue-derived lignin as the filer of polylactic acid composites and the effect of lignin purity on the composite. Journal of Applied Polymer Science.47915. DOI: 10.1002/app.47915.
[4] Kouisni, L., Maki, P.K. and Paleologou, M., 2012. The Lignoforce system: a new process for the production of high-quality lignin from black liquor. Journal of science & technology, 2(4):6-10.
[5] Hubbe, M.A., Alen, R., Paleologou, M., kannangara, M. and Kihlman, J., 2019. Lignin Recovery from spent alkaline pulping liquors using acidification, membrane separation, and related processing steps: a review. Bioresouces, 14(1):2300-2351.
[6] Zhu, W., Westman, G., and Theliander, H., 2014. Investigation and Characterization of Lignin Precipitation in the Lignoboost Process, Journal of wood chemistry and technology, 34:77-97.
[7] Fatehi, P W. GAO, Y. Sun, M. Dashtban., 2016. Acidification of pre-hydrolysis liquor and spent liquor of neutral sulfite semichemical pulping process. Bioresources Technology, 218:518-525.
[8] Tomani, P., 2010. The Lignoboost process. Cellulose chemistry and technology, 44(1-3): 53-58.
[9] Alekhina, M., Ershova, O., Ebert, A., SHeikkinen, S. and Sixta, H., 2015. Softwood Kraft lignin for value-added applications: Fractionation and structural characterization. Industrial Crops and Products, 66:220–228.
[10] Azimvand, J., Didehban, KH. And Mirshokrai, S.A., 2018. Preparation and Characterization of Lignin Polymeric Nanoparticles Using the Green Solvent Ethylene Glycol: Acid Precipitation Technology, Bioresources,13(2):2887-2897.
[11] Kouisni, L., Gagne, A., Maki, K., Holt-Hindle, P. and Paleologou, M., 2016. LignoForce System for the Recovery of Lignin from Black Liquor: Feedstock Options, Odor Profile, and Product Characterization. ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, 4:5152-5159.
[12] Sameni, J., Krigstin, S., Santos Rosa, D., Leao, A. and Sain, M., 2014. Thermal characteristics of lignin residue from industrial processes, Bioresource, 9(1):725-737.
[13] Zhang, S., Wang, Z., Zhang, Y., Pan, H. and Ta, L., 2016. Adsorption of methylene blue on organosolv lignin from rice straw. Procedia Environmental Sciences, 31:3-11.
[14] Watkins, D., Nuruddin, Md., Hosur, Mahesh., Tcherbi-Narteh, A. and Jeelani, sh., 2015. Extraction and characterization of lignin from different biomass resources. Material technology, 4(1):26-32.
 [15] Garcia, A., Toledano, A., Serrano, L., Egues, I., M. González, M., F. Marin, F. and Labidi, J., 2009.Characterization of lignins obtained by selective precipitation Separation and Purification Technology ,68:193–198.
[16] Weizhen Zhu, W., and Theliander, H., 2015. Precipitation of Lignin from Softwood Black Liquor: An Investigation of the Equilibrium and Molecular Properties of Lignin. Bio Resources, 10(1):1696-1714.
[17] Dai, L., Liu. R., Hu, L., Zou, Z., and CH, Si., 2017. Lignin Nanoparticle as a Novel Green Carrier for the Efficient Delivery of Resveratrol. ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, 5:8241−8249.
[18] Wallmo, H., Richards, T., and Theliander, H., 2007. Lignin precipitation from kraft black liquors: Kinetics and carbon dioxide absorption, Paperi Ja Puu-Paper and Timber, 89:436-442.
Iranian Journal of Wood and Paper Industries
Volume 12, Issue 2
September 2021
Pages 235-246

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics