Production of corrugating medium paper with secondary fibers from digested deinking sludge

•First report on papermaking with adding secondary fibers from DDS.•Qualified sheets were obtained when secondary fiberloads from DDS were ≤30%.•Adding DDS reducedsheets’ ring crushstrength, breaking length and roughness.•Highly reuse of DS was achieved via methane and papermaking material production.

This work focused on developing an approach to reusing digested deinking sludge for corrugating medium paper manufacture by recycling secondary fibers. The fiber content in the digested deinking sludge (DDS) was around 41.87%, and the main proportion of fibers (87.6%) was subject to secondary fines with lengths less than 0.2 mm. The qualified corrugating medium paper was obtained when the secondary fiber load from DDS was equal or less than 30%. Corrugating medium paper manufactured by adding DDS could maximize reuse and recycling of deinking sludge via methane and papermaking material production, and reduce the environmental pollution as well.

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