METHOD FOR PREPARING PULP FROM CORNSTALK

Abstract: The invention relates to a pulp preparing method and, more particularly, to a method for preparing a paper pulp form cornstalks including the steps of high-pressure cooking, beating, dispersion and drying performed in a moderate condition that has little noxious effect on the environment. Using cornstalks as a raw material for paper pulp can replace import of wood raw material, save foreign currency, increase rural income and can make high quality paper similar to Korean paper.

Description: METHOD FOR PREPARING PULP FROM CORNSTALK Background of the Invention The present invention relates to a pulp making technology using herbaceous plants and, more particularly, to a method for making a pulp from cornstalk. Using cornstalks as a raw material for paper pulp can replace import of wood raw material, save foreign currency, increase rural income and can make high quality paper similar to Korean paper. At present, Korea, with increasing national income, is tenth manufacturing country in the world (paper board production of 5,830,000 tons/year) as well as being 7th paper consuming country in publishing stuffs, newspapers, publishing boards, graft and bulk papers, but total amount of pulps to produce papers depends on foreign markets at 100%. Developing pulp industries will impair forest resources, so new pulp materials should be developed. For it, we should manufacture and process cellulose materials from various plant species and improve their utility value. Species in our country don't meet to produce pulp, forest resources are exhausted, raw materials for pulp can't be secured, and, therefore, studies to find new turning point are frequently reported. Conventionally, paper making pulps are mostly wood pulps, but, as recently worldwide lack of wood resources is deepened, forests and environments are preserved, the matter to manufacture paper making pulp become big problem. As a plan to solve this problem, pulp making technologies from non-wood plant fibers using one or two year plants for main materials have been attended. To secure materials for pulps, China, middle ease and India lacking forest resources nation-widely concentrate to develop pulp material using farm wastes or bamboos as herbs, and develop pulp manufacturing processes using wastes of sugar cane stalks abolished after sugar production. Generally, non-wood plants contain lots of pectin, hemi-celluloses and inorganic substances, and little lignin. For making pulps from non-wood plant, chemical, semi-chemical or mechanic-chemical methods are used to produce non- bleach or bleach pulps in very moderate conditions compared to wood materials. Non- wood pulps have each characteristic according to their fiber form, chemical composition, and types and amount of non-fiber cells. Therefore, papers using independent non-wood pulps or appropriate combination with wood pulps have used in more various usages according to strength, endurance, electrical characteristics, luster, dimension stability and feature of publishing performance, and their utilizations have been extended. Non-wood plants are paper mulberry bark, flax, hemp, cotton plant and Manila hemp. There have previously been attempts in the art to provide a pulp manufacturing methods using as pulp materials bagasses (as disclosed in Korean Patent Laid-open No. 84-005762), dry pine needles gathered from fallen leaves (in Korean Patent Laid-open No. 91-3216), or rice stalks (in Korean Patent Laid-open Nos. 98-9651 and 93-2604). In addition, Korean Patent Application No. 85-5895 discloses a method for preparing a pulp from cigarette stalks. To the inventor's knowledge, a method for preparing a pulp from cornstalks has not been recognized in any document to date. Corns cultivated in rural district are used for food or livestock feed, but recently, cornstalks are not used for feed and most of all are abandoned. We need to replace pulp depending on import in total amount, prevent needless foreign currency waste, use farm wastes usefully and increase rural income. There is also a need of developing high quality paper as Korean paper. Therefore, it is necessary to process cornstalks in novel way and raise its utility value in making make pulp-like or other materials. So, the invention makes an attempt to prepare a novel and peculiar Korean-style pulp from cornstalks and manufacture the paper having high quality and unique characteristics similar to traditional Koran paper. At present, since most of countries use woods, separate fibrous cellulose and produce paper making and melting pulps, and 90% production in the world are wood pulps, wood pulp making methods using needle-leaf trees are widely known, but Korean paper making methods in our country can be used to make high quality paper. The Koreans have been long produced Korean paper from paper mulberry barks, as a Korean pure specialty having peculiar characteristics distinct from western paper in terms of physical properties. For example, Korean paper is much superior in durability, heat insulation and air permeability. In a conventional Korean paper preparation, paper mulberry barks are collected every October and November, boiled in a kettle and barked to leave white inner bark alone. The outer barks are settled in the buckwheat lye and, after boiled to pulp, pelted into pieces using a wooden hammer. The paper mulberry juice is added into a paper peeling tank to obtain paper sheets. There is a need of developing a selective reagent reactive to lignin other than celluloses under exposure to the timber in the manufacture of a wood-based cellulose pulp. As the pulp making process is a combination of wastewater recovery and waste treatment processes in terms of environment conservancy, the wood pulp manufacturing industry is considered as a capital-intensive large-scaled equipment industry and an energy-intensive industry using a great amount of water. The chemical pulp preparation is composed of a pulping step for removing lignin among wood ingredients, and a pulp bleaching and purifying step for selectively eliminating residual impurities in the pulp. The specific chemical pulp preparation method considerably varies depending on the usage and required quality of the final pulp product. The conventional pulps used for fiber or paper manufacture are made from pulp materials of needle leaved trees. The pulp materials are processed into wood pulp by a mechanical or chemical method. The mechanical pulping process proceeds in the order of pulp material tank, cross-section, barking, chipper (wood pulp grinder), rough screen, qualitative screen, central cleaner, dehydrator, pulp, head box, wire drum, press and non-dried pulp rollers. Meanwhile, the chemical pulping process proceeds in the order of pulp material tank, barking, chipper, cooking tube, rough screen, washing machine, qualitative screen, dehydrator, bleaching tower, washing machine, pump, central cleaner, head box, wire, drier, cutter and package pulp. Both of the two pulping process largely depend on pulp material imports. Specifically, there are two types of pulp, paper-making pulp and a melting pulp. The melting pulp is prepared by melting high purity celluloses obtained from timber together with acidic polymer through a chemical reaction and used for manufacture of various cellulose polymer products and preparation of cellulose derivatives having a high alpha-cellulose content of 90-98%. The separation of fibrous cellulose from timber uses a chemical and mechanical pulp preparing method that involves removing the timber of phenol lignin combined between the wood cells via very strong chemical bonds, or softening the lignin in a physical chemical way to compulsorily separate lignin from the timber. A kraft method for separating lignin from timber uses an alkaline cooking liquid containing nucleophilic groups such as -OH, -SH and -S 2 that attack the lignin polymer constituted by phenylpropane units to produce a phenol hydroxyl groups forming a quinonmethide, which reacts with the neucleophilic reagent to active sulfurization, thus degrading the lignin polymer to be melted in the alkaline solution. An acidic sulfite method involves hydrolysis of phenol ether bonds with H + to produce carbonium ions, which are bonded to bisulfite ions, as a result of which the lignin polymer is converted to water-soluble lignosulfate. However, as the methods use a cooking reagent selectively reactive to lignin polymer rather than other polymer ingredients of the wood, the cooking liquid is a strong alkaline or acid solution. Also, the methods cannot separate high purity fibrous celluloses because part of the celluloses are decomposed at high temperature controlled in the range of about 150- 170 °C to achieve an economical lignin separation rate. Accordingly, the paper making pulp must be subjected to a bleaching step to obtain a high level of whiteness through a selective removal method for residual lignin comprising at least five-stage oxidation and alkaline extraction, in consideration of pulp yield and economical aspect. Summary of the Invention The present invention is contrived to provide a method for preparing a pulp of good quality from cornstalks whereby the cornstalks can be used to produce a high quality pulp as a substitute for the conventional wood pulp. The preparation method further includes a pulp bleaching step. The present invention is also to provide a method for preparing a pulp from cornstalks, in which other pulps such as wood pulp, used pulp or herbaceous pulps other than cornstalk pulp can be added. The present invention is directed to a pulp preparing method using herbaceous plants and, specifically, to a method for preparing a pulp from cornstalk. The raw material used in the present invention, corns are classified into eight species, i.e., dent corn, flint corn, sweet corn, pop corn, flour corn, starchy sweet corn, waxy corn and pad corn, depending on the shape and property of the grain. The corn has fruits used for food and, stalks and leaves as ensilage after soiling for use as animal feed. Besides, the corns are utilized as a material for construction, fuel, filler, mat, straw sandals, medical stuff, and so forth. The conventional main source of pulp, timber is a piece of growing trees with cells accumulating under cell division. The timber comprises microfilaments densely arranged in an alternative manner in a lignin matrix, which is similar in structure as cement, and partly associated with each other by chemical bonds that strengthen the timber. Feudenberg et al. analyzed degradation products of the timber through hydrolysis, pyrolysis, replacement, oxidation and reduction and found that the timber has a distinct structure depending on the type of the source of timber, i.e., needle leaved tree, broad-leaved tree, or herbaceous plant. As an industrial material used due to high density, the timber is originated from needle leaved trees and its usefulness as- an industrial material relies on the structure of lignin units existing in cell walls and the type of tree. In regard to composition, the cornstalk pulp of the present invention contains hemi-cellulose of the highest content with a lower content of lignin, while the wood pulp has the highest cellulose content with a high lignin content. For example, the wood pulp comprises 45 wt.% of cellulose, 27 wt.% of hemi-cellulose, 28 wt.% of lignin, and 3 wt.% of other gradient extracts. The cornstalk has filaments 1-4 mm long, 20-40 μm in width and 5-10 μm in thickness. The present invention is contrived to provide a cornstalk pulp preparing method comprising the steps of pulverization, high-pressure cooking, dispersion, paper making and drying. This preparation method of cornstalk pulp is much analogous to that of wood pulp but requires less strict condition with a simple pulping step in regard to the lignin content. However, the cornstalk pulp takes somewhat long time in manufacturing relative to other herbaceous pulps. The cornstalk pulp preparing method may further include a pulp bleaching step generally using an oxidizing agent as a pulp bleaching agent. The method may further include a chlorination step using chlorine only in the first stage of the process in order to remove residual lignin. The chlorination step makes the lignin hydrophobic through reaction with an unsaturated aliphatic fluorogum resinate. Following the chlorination, a thermal alkaline extraction step is performed that involves alkaline saponification of fatty acid, wax and other esters into free fatty acid in the form of soap. The fatty acid dissolves the fluorogum and hence the decomposed lignin fragments. One of the most effective surfactants used in the alkaline extraction step is nonylphenol having a polyethylene having a branched chain of glycol. Like wood pulp, the cornstalk pulp is subjected to hypochlorite bleaching, chlorine dioxide bleaching or hydrogen peroxide bleaching in order to enhance whiteness. Thus the bleaching step of the melting pulp is performed under the same conditions as in the case of the paper making pulp. In the preparation of pulp from cornstalks, herbaceous pulp or reclaimed pulp may be added in the dispersion step in addition to the wood pulp and cornstalk pulp in order to provide various properties. Alternatively, a water-soluble polymer material may be added to the pulp composed of the cornstalks only or further comprising another pulp for purpose of enhancing the property of the pulp. The water-soluble polymer may be preferably polyvinylalcohol or polyacrylamide. The reason for adding the water-soluble polymer to the pulp is to improve surface conditions and paper strength, expand the usage and provide water resistance. In the pulp preparation, additional ingredient materials may be added such as starch, paper strength enhancer, fiber expansion agent, fluorescent brightener or polymer electrolyte. Preferably, examples of the polymer electrolyte may include polyamine, polyethylene amine, polyethylene oxide, etc. The polymer electrolyte disperses the pulp against entanglement. The other additives than polymer electrolyte make the structure of the pulp dense and provide fiber expansion, printability and opaqueness of the paper, as well as lowering the production cost of the paper. Examples of the other additives may include aluminum sulfate, calcium carbonate, China clay, aluminum hydroxide, silicious marl, lipid glucose, talc, carboxymethylcellulose, diethylamine ethyl chloride, gum rosin, wood rosin, and the like. Among the pulp preparation steps, the high-pressure cooking step preferably may use different pulping methods such as kraft pulping, sulfite pulping, alkaline sulfite pulping or soda pulping, because the paper peeling is not executable by an atmospheric pulping method. The atmospheric pulping method results in insufficient cooking of the keratin layer and the inner fiber of the cornstalks and hence a considerable loss of a cooking reagent in the process of the test. The reaction conditions of the high-pressure cooking step are almost the same in terms of the four above-mentioned pulping methods excepting the type of the reagent. For example, the alkaline sulfite pulping method and the soda pulping method are performed under the same conditions, but using a different reagent. The kraft pulping method uses an aqueous solution of NaOH and Na 2 O, the sulfite pulping method an aqueous solution of Na SO 3 and Na 2 CO 3 , the alkaline sulfite pulping method an aqueous solution of NaOH, Na CO 3 and AQ, the soda pulping method an aqueous solution of NaOH alone. The high-pressure cooling is preferably carried out under the following conditions: the reaction time of 1.5 to 4 hours; the reaction temperature of 120 to 200 °C; and the ratio (wt/wt) of the aqueous solution of the reagent to the pulp material in the range of 6: 1 to 3 : 1. If the ratio (wt/wt) of the aqueous solution of the reagent to the pulp material exceeds the above range, the extremely strong chemicals makes all weak celluloses melted and remains strong fibers to increase the paper strength. Thus the ratio of the aqueous solution of the reagent to the pulp material must be adjusted to such an adequate level as to meet the economic requirements. The cornstalks collected are removed of the flesh texture, subjected to pulverization and disintegration to achieve fiber cooking and, after removal of the keratin layer and other impurities, beating and disintegration. Subsequently, a sheet machine is used to process the dispersed pulp into paper sheets, followed by sizing and drying. The resulting papers each manufactured by soda pulping, kraft pulping or alkaline sulfite pulping were measured for their physical properties. The specific volume was largest for the soda-treated pulp made of cornstalks alone, which was found to have a soft and bulky fibrous structure. A tensile strength test revealed that the kraft pulp was most superior in the tensile strength and best cooked. The results demonstrated that the kraft pulp was mostly composed of fibrous tissue. The kraft pulp was most superior in the bursting strength and the folding endurance and the alkaline to other pulps and the sulfite pulp has the highest tearing strength. [Table 1] Paper sheets each prepared by mixing 40 wt.% of soda cornstalk pulp, kraft pulp or alkaline sulfite pulp based on about 60 wt.% of bleached needle-leaved kraft pulp (NBKP) were much superior in physical properties to a pulp made of cornstalks alone. The tree pulps, i.e., soda pulp, kraft pulp and alkaline sulfite pulp showed almost two-fold specific volume and bursting strength, at least about seventy-fold folding endurance and at least five-fold tearing strength relative to the pulp made of cornstalks alone. This suggests the characteristics, economic worth and expectation of infinite development of the pulp made of cornstalks. [Table 2] Properties of Paper Sheets Comprising NBKP (60 wt.%) and Bleached Cornstalk pulp (40 wt.%). ■ Note) A: NBKP B: Cornstalk Best Mode for Carrying out the Invention The present invention will be described below in further detail with reference to the following examples, which illustrate but are not intended to limit the present invention. Reagent and Material Cooking agents used in the present invention were NaOH, Na SO 3 , Na S and Na 2 CO 3 , and bleaching agents were hypochlorite (NaCIO) and chlorocalc (Ca(ClO) 2 ). The raw material for pulp was cornstalks harvested on the farm and completely dried in the shadow. The dried cornstalks were cut in 3-4 cm, removed of leaves and other unnecessary parts from the outer skin and cut off the inner skin, i.e., flesh texture, followed by pulverization in a size through a crusher and a grinder. As for apparatuses used in the pulp preparation, a 3 -liter beaker, a heating plate, a self-stirring machine and a boiler were used under atmospheric conditions, and a lOkg/cm fired pressure vessel under the pressurized conditions. An automatic shaking machine was used for washing and neutralization, and a special apparatus for pulverization of the liquid pulp material. And, there were used a PPI-milling machine (beating conditions: pressure 1.8 kg/cm 2 , clearance 0.3 mm) for pulp beating and a specific hand sheet machine (TMI Inc., 173 mm in diameter) for cooking pulp sheets. Here, the radius of a pouring basin was 17.3 and the hole size of a sieve was 0.38-0.39 mm. A thick non-woven fabric, pushing rollers and a double cylinder type mechanism were used to give the form of the prepared paper sample and prevent a wrinkle on the dry surface of the paper sample. The characteristics of the pulp were measured with a specific volumeter and a tensile strength measurer (Schopper type, Toyoseik Inc.), a bursting strength measurer (Mullen tester, B. F. Perkin Inc.), a folding endurance tester (Timus Olsen testing machine Inc.) and a tearing strength measurer (Elmendorf Tearing Tester, Thwing Alert Instrument Inc.). Comparative Example 1 In the atmospheric experiment, 100 g of cornstalk sample (removed of flesh texture) was tested using NaOH and Na 2 SO 3 with a concentration of 10% and 15% in the temperature range of around 150 °C for 2, 3 and 4 hours. After filtering the cooked sample with a lOOmesh sieve, the residual was neutralized in water for about one day and dried at 80 °C for 5 days. The dried product was intended to use as a pulp material. The final product thus obtained was 65.4 g, 63.2 g and 62.3 g when treated with 15% NaOH at 150 °C for 2, 3 and 4 hours, respectively; and 68.34 g, 65.12 g and 62.7 g after treatment with 15%) Na 2 SO 3 at 150 °C for 2, 3 and 4 hours, respectively. Thus the yield amounted to about 65%. 100 g of the cooked sample was filtered with a lOOmesh sieve and the residual was settled in water for about one day, followed by beating. The final product was intended to use as a pulp material but cooking the paper was not achieved. To calculate the pulping yield, the cornstalk sample cooked under the respective pulping conditions was washed, disintegrated with a fiber disintegrator at 3,000 rpm, dried at 80 °C for 5 hours and weighted. The pulping yield is given by the following equation. Yield (%) = (dry weight of sample) / (dry weight of cornstalk removed of flesh texture) x 100 Embodiment 1 In the high-pressure cooking method of the present invention, 500 g of cornstalk sample was added into an electrical heater type rotary cooking machine (pressure 0-10 kg/cm 2 , temperature 0-200 °C, capacity 40 liters) and subjected to cooking at a liquid ratio (wt/wt) of 4:1 to 6:1 (aqueous solution to dry weight of sample) and the maximum cooking temperature of 150 °C for 1.5 to 4 hours, followed by the soda pulping method. Specifically, in the first stage of the soda pulping method, 500 g of the sample was added into an electrical heater type rotary cooking machine (pressure 0-10 kg/cm 2 , temperature 0-200 °C, capacity 40 liters) and treated with 15% NaOH at a fixed liquid ratio (wt/wt) of 4:1 (aqueous solution to dry weight of sample) and the maximum cooking temperature of 150 °C for 1.5 hour. It was found that the nodes of the cornstalks were not well cooked and restored to the original state, which made it difficult to use the resulting material as a pulp. However, in the second stage of the soda pulping method, 500 g of the sample was added into an electrical heater type rotary cooking machine (pressure 0-10 kg/cm 2 , temperature 0-200 °C, capacity 40 liters) and treated with 20%) NaOH at a fixed liquid ratio (wt/wt) of 6:1 (aqueous solution to dry weight of sample) and the maximum cooking temperature of 150 °C for 3 hours. As a result, the cornstalk was well cooked into a pulp with the yield of 21-35 wt.%. Embodiment 2 The cornstalk sample was subjected to soda pulping using a first cooking liquid of 14% Na SO 3 and 4% Na 2 SO 3 at a fixed liquid ratio (wt/wt) of 4:1 (aqueous solution to dry weight of sample) and the maximum cooking temperature of 150 °C for 2 hours. The cornstalk sample was not well cooked into a' pulp. Meanwhile, the cornstalk sample was subjected to soda pulping using a second cooking liquid of 28% Na 2 SO 3 and 8% Na SO 3 at a fixed liquid ratio (wt/wt) of 6:1 (aqueous solution to dry weight of sample) and the maximum cooking temperature of 150 °C for 4 hours. As a result, the cornstalk sample was well cooked into a pulp with the yield of about 26-41 wt.%. Embodiment 3 The same procedures as described in Example 1 were performed excepting that 500 g of cornstalk sample was subjected to soda pulping using a cooking liquid of 10% NaOH, 20% Na 2 SO 3 , 4% Na 2 SO 3 and 0.1% anthraquinone at a fixed liquid ratio (wt/wt) of 6:1 (aqueous solution to dry weight of sample) for 3 hours. The yield of the pulp was about 23-38 wt.%. Embodiment 4 The same procedures as described in Example 1 were performed excepting that 500 g of cornstalk sample was subjected to kraft pulping using a cooking liquid of 20%) NaOH and 15% Na S at a fixed liquid ratio (wt/wt) of 6.T (aqueous solution to dry weight of sample) for 1.5 hour. The yield of the pulp was about 25-32 wt.%. Embodiment 5: First Beating and Paper Making 30 g of the pulped dry sample was settled in water at the concentration of 10%) (wt/wt) for more than 2 hours and added to a beating machine-PFI mill (beating conditions: pressure 1.8 kg/cm 2 , clearance 0.3 mm), followed by beating the kraft pulp 500 times or the alkaline sulfide pulp 1100 times at 40 °C SR. Embodiment 6: Pulp Bleaching Hypochlorite soda (NaCIO) and Chlorocalc (Ca(ClO) ) were used as a bleaching agent and sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate were added to achieve pH 9-11. The pulp concentration was in the range of 4-6% at the reaction temperature of 40 °C and 10-16% at 35 °C. Following the pulp bleaching step, the remaining alkaline component was extracted with the pulp concentration of 10-20% at 45-80 °C for 1 to 2 hours. The pulps obtained in the examples were processed into paper sheets using a special sheet machine (Hand Sheet Machine, TMI Inc., 173 mm in diameter). Embodiment 7 The four different pulps, i.e, soda pulp, kraft pulp, alkaline sulfite pulp and sulfite pulp prepared in the experiment were measured for their physical properties. To enhance the physical properties and extend the usage of the cornstalk pulp, each 40 wt.%) of the individual pulps were mixed with about 60 wt.% of bleached kraft pulp from a needle leaved tree. Thereafter, the pulp samples were measured in regard to specific volume, tensile strength, bursting strength, folding endurance and tearing strength. The results are presented in Tables 1 and 2. As described above, the present invention provides a pulp preparing method, specifically, a method for preparing a paper pulp from cornstalks comprising the steps of high-pressure cooking, beating, dispersion and drying performed in a moderate condition that has little noxious effect on the environment. Using cornstalks as a raw material for paper pulp can replace import of wood raw material, save foreign currency, increase rural income and can make high quality paper similar to Korean paper.

Claims: What is claimed is: 1. A method for preparing a pulp from cornstalks comprising the steps of pulverization of the cornstalks, high-pressure cooking, beating, dispersion, paper making and drying. 2. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of bleaching the pulp. 3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the high-pressure cooking step includes kraft pulping, sulfite pulping, alkaline pulping or soda pulping. 4. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the high-pressure cooking step is performed with a liquid ratio (wt/wt) of an aqueous reagent solution to a cornstalk material being 3:1 to 6:1 at the reaction temperature of 120-200 °C for 1.5 to 4 hours. 5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein based on the total weight of the pulp, 20-80 wt.% of herbaceous pulp or used pulp is added in addition to wood pulp and cornstalk pulp. 6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein a water-soluble polymer material including polyvinylalcohol or polyacrylamide is added. 7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein an additive including starch, strength enhancing agent, fiber expansion agent, fluorescent whitening agent or polymer electrolyte is further added.

Inventors: KIM CHEOL GAP, YU HAE IL, KIM, CHEOL, GAP, YU, HAE, IL
Applicants: KIM CHEOL GAP, POLYCHEM COMPANY LTD, YU HAE IL, KIM, CHEOL, GAP, POLYCHEM COMPANY LTD., YU, HAE, IL
Application year: 2000
Main classification: D21C3
IPC codes: D21C3, D21C5, D21C9, D21H11