High consistency hydrogen peroxide bleaching of a Norway spruce stone groundwood pulp : Influence of heat treatment and iron content

The objective of this work was to improve the understanding on how thermal treatments of mechanical pulps containing iron influence the unbleached brightness and hydrogen peroxide bleachability at high brightness levels. An unbleached Norway spruce stone groundwood (SGW) pulp was subjected to heat and iron (Fe3+) treatments followed by a chelating stage and a high consistency hydrogen peroxide bleaching stage. The hydrogen peroxide bleachability was studied on pulps as a function of pre-treatment at elevated temperatures and strongly bound iron content prior to bleaching and the alkali charge during bleaching. The evaluation was done using an experimental design based on the MODDE software (Umetrics AB). Heat treatment of the unbleached SGW pulp at 110 or 140 degrees C did not induce a significant increase in light absorption coefficient. Increasing the heat treatment temperature to 170 degrees C did, however, result in an increased light absorption coefficient corresponding to a brightness loss of 3.5% ISO. The light scattering coefficient was found to be essentially unchanged regardless of the heat-treatment conditions applied. The brightness loss resulting from the heat treatment could only partly be regained by hydrogen peroxide bleaching. An increased amount of strongly bound iron in the unbleached SGW pulp increased the light absorption coefficient. This increase was slightly higher when heat pre-treatment was performed at 140 and 170 degrees C compared to when heating at 110 degrees C. Hydrogen peroxide bleaching was found to reduce the iron content of the pulps and thus regain some of the brightness that was lost. This effect was most pronounced at the higher alkali charge levels. It is thus important to minimise the processing temperature, the time at high temperature and the iron content of the pulp in order to improve the unbleached brightness and bleachability of mechanical pulps.