CHEMICAL AND THERMOGRAVIMETRIC ANALYSIS AND SODA AND ORGANOSOLV PULPING OF HESPERALOE FUNIFERA

摘要

The Hesperaloe funifera plant was characterized in terms of its major components (cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin and extractives), hot water solubles, 1 % NaOH solubles and ash, by using conventional chemical methods and thermogravimetric analysis. The contents in lignin, α-cellulose, holocellulose, hemicellulose, ethanol-benzene extractives, hot water solubles, 1% NaOH solubles and ash of Hesperaloe funifera were of 7.3, 40.9, 76.5, 35.6, 4.0, 13.5,29.5 and 5.9%, respectively. By its chemical composition, Hesperaloe funifera provides an effective source of cellulose for producing pulp and paper, with some advantages over other non-wood raw materials including kenaf, bagasse, cotton stalks, wheat straw, paulownia and sunflower stalks. The application of soda and organosolv (ethyleneglycol, diethyleneglycol, ethanolamine and diethanolamine) processes to Hesperaloe funifera determined a very good performance of the pulp samples, especially of those obtained by 10% soda and 1% anthraquinone at 155 °C, for 30 min. In fact, the resulting soda-anthraquinone pulp exhibits good yield (48.3%), Kappa number (15.2), viscosity (737 mL/g) and beating degree (65.1 °SR), the paper sheets obtained from it evidencing good tensile index (83.6 Nm/g), stretch (3.8%), burst index (7.34 KN/g) and tear index (3.20 mNm~2/g) values.