Abstract
Alkaline sulfite-anthraquinone(AS-AQ) cooking process has been applied to unground pine bark. The properties of the spent liquor such as molecular weight distributions, sulfonic equivalent weights, degree of sulfonation, phenolic hydroxyl groups and kaolin dispersing ability have been investigated to evaluate the possibility of using this liquor as concrete additives or binders. In the case of ground bark meal, more than 90% delignification was achieved at the optimal cooking conditions. However, applying these conditions on unground bark the delignification was slightly retarded. The decrease in the degree of delignification may be attributed to less penetration and diffusion of chemicals during the cooking of the bark. Increasing the cooking temperature only by $5^{\circ}C$ improved the delignification of the bark and about 90% delignification can be achieved. These results indicate that bark can be used successfully during AS-AQ cooking without any mechanical or physical pretreatment. The properties of lignin or polyphenol sulfonates in the spent liquor after AS-AQ cooking of the bark were compared with Sunflo-R, which is commercial lignosulfonate(CLS) prepared from wood. The weight average molecular weights(Mws) estimated by gel-filteration chromatography was found to be ranging from 1,200~1,800. These are considerably lower than those in CLS. Lignin or polyphenol sulfonates in the spent liquor of bark and CLS have similar degree of sulfonation, but the phenolic hydroxyl group was 1.8 times higher than CLS. Moreover, the dispersing abilities of the spent liquors were better than that of CLS, especially after 0.1% addition to kaolin suspension.