Download - Wood-fibre for future products from pulp
Wood-fibre for future products from pulp
Paul Kibblewhite
Wood-fibre for papermaking
The next 10 – 20 years
Wall area CoarsenessNumber 1/(wall area x length)
Width/thickness = Fibre collapse (in dried sheet)Perimeter/wall thickness 1/(Wood density) Collapse
Fibre property interrelationships
Softwood versus Hardwood fibres
Furnish mix components
• Softwood fibres for reinforcement, runnability and robustness
• Hardwood fibres for bulk, surface & optical properties, and formation
Eucalypt fibre selection for papermaking
• Plantation-grown species, hybrids and clones
• Short crop rotations at 5+ years• Chip density about 550 kg/m³• High kraft pulp yield• Target fibre coarseness, length and collapse
resistance• Target sheet bulk and tensile strength
Globulus a premium eucalypt fibre-type
Where to in short-term?
• Conventional breeding and propagation technologies
• Short crop rotations• High forest productivity and disease
resistance• Emphasis on low cost, rapid propagation
procedures, and screening tools • Genetic modification of lower priority
Softwood fibre-types
123 80 52
Softwood pulp uniformity by fibre-type
Northern is the premium softwood fibre-type
• Low coarseness
• long and slender
• High number
• Low MFA
• High hemicelluloses
• Low refining energy
• Long crop rotations
Northern fibre-type from radiata pineHow Do?
• Wood/chip segregation
• Pulp fractionation
• Conventional breeding, hybridisation and cloning
• Genetic modification
Market kraft categories through wood/chip segregation
125 110 100 76
“Rods and Ribbons”Pulp fractionation by fibre collapse
Breeding for fibre quality
Select for
Low Fibre Coarseness
while
retaining or increasing
Density and Length
Coarseness
Wood-fibre number
Radiata pine fibre improvements in the short-term
Wood/chip segregation• Further advances limitedPulp fractionation by fibre collapse• Yet to be achievedGenetic modification, and breeding for low coarseness• Pulp mill is a residue user • “Change” required for pulpwood regimes and fibre
quality improvement
Pulp-fibre for papermaking 50 years on!Who Knows?
Today’s commodities
• Tissue, sanitary and packaging products, possibly OK
• Junk-mail, newsprint, communication and hard-copy, probably limited?
Today’s specialty cement reinforcement pulp?
Wood-fibre for future bio-products from pulp:A 50-year horizon
Softwood and Eucalypt-type pulp-fibre 50 years on
• Short rotation pulpwood regimes (5 – 10 years)• Highly uniform fibre property populations• Earlywood- and latewood-type pulps• Wide range of chemical and physical fibre-
property combinations
Many possible fibre property combinations1. Separate EW & LW fibre populations
Latewood Earlywood
Rod-like Ribbon-like Same coarseness
Thick wall Thin wall, Small perim Large perim Uncollapsed Collapsed
2. Low or high coarseness rod-like fibre populations
High coarseness Low coarseness Few fibres Many fibres
Small surface cm²/g Large surface cm²/g Same Chip density
Wall thick/perim Collapse
3. Four plus fibre-property combinations for future products from pulp
Rod-like populations Ribbon-like populations Low coarseness High coarseness Low coarseness High coarseness Many Few Many Few Low collapse Low collapse High collapse High collapse Low or high MFA Low or high MFA Low or high MFA Low or high MFA Long or short Long or short Long or short Long or short
Fibre property combinations
Designer fibres
through
Purpose-grown, short-rotation crops
for
Sustainable designer products
Fibre-property-combination research
Genetic modification
A critical success requirement
• Assay procedures to screen genotypes at the plantlet stage (3 months?)
Back to Reality!Who pays? • Fibre-property-combination research and development• Product identification processes • Fibre property combination selection and supply• Product development
Constraints• Costs• Sustainability, and product- and market-driven • Green-house effect