Preparation of thermo-mechanical pulp (TMP) from whole pine logs at different stages of decay resulting from mountain pine beetle (MPB) attack.(Abstract)

摘要

As a part of the ongoing research targeted at preparing Alberta's mechanical pulp mills for processing pine beetle-killed wood, the slabwood from whole pine logs obtained at three different stages of decay was chipped and TMP-refined to 90mL CSF for shoe press trials at Voith Paper in Germany. The behaviour of each furnish during TMP refining is reported along with unbleached handsheet properties. It is observed that the green and grey phase pine furnishes were both refined to produce TMP of acceptable strength. Processing grey phase pine chips offered both benefits (reduced refining energy) and drawbacks (lower unbleached TMP brightness) compared to processing green pine chips. The red phase furnish presented significant challenges both in processing and in final product quality, which was attributed to the high pitch content in the red phase chips.