Chemical Treatment of Short Fiber Fraction of OCC for Retention and Drainage

Use of recycled fibers in papermaking has been increased for economical and environmental reasons. Recycled panels are major liber resources for brown grades and newsprints. Since the recycled fibers have disadvantageous properties as raw materials for papermaking it is of great importance to optimize the use of these recycled fibers. OCC (Old Corrugated Containers) is the major fiber source for linerboards and corrugating mediums that require diverse specification in strength properties. Many studies have been focused to overcome the problems of strength reduction of brown grades when recycled fibers are used as raw materials. The problem of strength loss for papers made from recycled fibers is closely associated with the increased amount of fines in recycled fibers and hornification of fibers. Fines contained in the recycled fiber resources cause problems not only in paper properties but also in process runnability. This shows that the optimal management and proper use of fines in recycling papermaking system are critical to get most benefits of using recycled fibers. In this study some approaches for optimal use of fiber fines in recycled paper mill have been investigated. Stock samples, prepared in the laboratory and obtained from a recycling plant were used. Fractionation of these samples was made using Sweco screen. And the effect of the addition of polyelectrolytes including cationic PAM and PEI on drainage and retention was evaluated. Different methods of polymer addition were compared to find the most effective ways of treating recycled fiber stocks with polyelectrolytes. Addition of polyelectrolytes to the short fiber fraction was most effective in retention and drainage. The influence of the charge and molecular weight of these two polymers has been examined and discussed.