Hemicelluloses removal in autohydrolysis pretreatment enhances the subsequent alkali impregnation effectiveness of poplar sapwood

- Poplar sapwood with different hemicelluloses content by autohydrolysis was got.
- The autohydrolyzed poplar sapwood was subjected to alkali impregnation.
- Porosities of the fiber cell walls were increased due to the hemicelluloses removal.
- Hemicelluloses removal raised alkali impregnation effectiveness of poplar sapwood.

This work is aimed at investigating the influence of changes in the content of hemicelluloses of the autohydrolyzed poplar sapwood on the subsequent alkali impregnation for chemi-mechanical pulping (CMP). An alkali impregnation process was conducted using the autohydrolyzed poplar sapwood with different content of hemicelluloses as raw materials. The results showed that both the amount of NaOH consumption and swelling degree of poplar sapwood increased with the removal of hemicelluloses, thus enhancing the alkali impregnation effectiveness. The hemicelluloses removal can also shorten the alkali impregnation time for the autohydrolyzed poplar sapwood to achieve the similar impregnation effectiveness of unautohydrolyzed poplar sapwood. All of these can be attributed to the fact that the hemicelluloses removal would result in the exposure of more free hydroxyl groups on the cellulose and an increase in the porosity of the fiber cell walls.