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Extended-impregnation kraft cooking (EIC) is a cooking concept that combines prolonged impregnation with modern improved modified kraft cooking. In the current investigation, the EIC cooking of bir ...

Common metrics for evaluating the efficiency of oxygen delignification include the kappa number and Klason lignin content. As a change in xylan content often leads to a change in HexA content, the kappa number must be corrected for the HexA contribution before evaluating the degree of oxygen delignification when trying to understand the process in detail. Questions could also be raised about the accuracy of the Klason lignin method for oxygen-delignified hardwood kraft pulps, since the amount of residual lignin is small in such pulp. This study investigates the influence of xylan content on oxygen delignification efficiency in Eucalyptus urograndis kraft pulps. Xylan content was varied using two methods: treatment with xylanase and with acid prehydrolysis for various times before kraft cooking. The degree of oxygen delignification, expressed as the HexA-corrected kappa number, indicated no significant trend with xylan removal, and no significant trend was evident when expressed as Klason lignin content.

A potential way to improve the overall yield is to terminate the kraft cook at higher kappa number. This method was investigated using Extended Impregnation kraft Cook (EIC). As a reference, kraft ...

Compared to conventional kraft cooking, (CK), extended-impregnation kraft cooking (EIC) gives higher yield of cellulose and xylan. In the present study, the amount of xylan and its degree of substitution (DS) with 4-O-methyl glucuronic acid (MeGlcA) and hexenuronic acid groups (HexA) in unbleached and OD*(OP)D-bleached E. urograndis EIC and CK has been compared. Additionally, the molecular weight distributions of the EIC and CK pulps after oxygen delignification and of xylan isolated from these pulps were investigated. The EIC cooking resulted in pulps with xylan with higher degree of substitution with both 4-O-methyl glucuronic acid and hexenuronic acid groups. The DS of xylan with hexenuronic acid groups increased progressively when the kappa number of the pulps decreased from 34 to 16. Also after oxygen delignification and D*(OP)D bleaching, the xylan in the EIC pulps possessed up to 50% more MeGlcA groups than the xylan in the CK pulp. Almost all the HexA groups were removed from the pulps during bleaching. The weight average molecular weight of cellulose in unbleached EIC pulps was higher than for cellulose in CK pulps. Xylan in EIC pulps had a wider molecular weight distribution than xylan in CK pulps.