Partial Replacement of Cationic Starch by Cationic Hardwood Kraft Lignin Does Not Compromise Key Paper Properties

abstract

Competition issues with food industry have recently boosted the exploration of alternative solutions capable of replacing starch in papermaking to a certain extent. Covalent grafting of quaternary ammonium groups onto LignoBoost((R)) Eucalyptus kraft lignin has recently shown promise in this regard as the cationic products feature excellent water solubility across the entire pH scale. Considering these suitable properties, cationic kraft lignin was applied and evaluated, for the first time, in the perspective of partial substitution of cationic starch in papermaking, using bleached Eucalyptus kraft pulp. Based on an assessment of key paper properties, such as mechanical (tensile, bursting, and tearing indexes), structural (roughness, capillarity rise, air resistance, internal strength, and water contact angle), and optical ones (brightness, opacity, and relative color change), it is safe to conclude that the partial replacement of conventional cationic starch by cationic lignin does not compromise these features. The results also show that properties can be fine-tuned by varying the degree of lignin derivatization, providing paper-specific solutions for replacing starch by lignin potentially available at large-scale at the pulp and paper industry, closing the loop within the circular economy concept.

keywords

STRENGTH PROPERTIES; PULP; DERIVATIVES; MECHANISM; FIBERS; WET

subject category

Science & Technology - Other Topics; Environmental Sciences & Ecology

authors

Pinto, PIF; Pinto, PCR; Evtuguin, DV; Liebner, F

our authors

acknowledgements

This work was carried out under the Project Inpactus-innovative products and technologies from Eucalyptus, Project N degrees 21874 funded by Portugal 2020 through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in the frame of COMPETE 2020 n degrees 246/AXIS II/2017.

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