摘要:
Embodiments of the present invention relates generally to methods and systems for the manufacture of cellulose nanocrystals. In one embodiment, a method for manufacturing cellulose nanocrystals comprises reacting lignocellulosic fibers with sulfuric acid in water, introducing a water-insoluble solvent to substantially terminate the reaction, separating a first stream comprising at least 70% of the unreacted sulfuric acid in the water-insoluble solvent from a second stream comprising a plurality of cellulose nanocrystals and the remainder of the unreacted sulfuric acid in water, and separating the cellulose nanocrystals from the second stream.
摘要:
Various embodiments of the present invention relate to surface enhanced pulp fibers, various products incorporating surface enhanced pulp fibers, and methods and systems for producing surface enhanced pulp fibers. Various embodiments of surface enhanced pulp fibers have significantly increased surface areas compared to conventional refined fibers while advantageously minimizing reductions in length following refinement. The surface enhanced pulp fibers can be incorporated into a number of products that might benefit from such properties including, for example, paper products, paperboard products, fiber cement boards, fiber reinforced plastics, fluff pulps, hydrogels, cellulose acetate products, and carboxymethyl cellulose products. In some embodiments, a plurality of surface enhanced pulp fibers have a length weighted average fiber length of at least about 0.3 millimeters and an average hydrodynamic specific surface area of at least about 10 square meters per gram, wherein the number of surface enhanced pulp fibers is at least 12,000 fibers/milligram on an oven-dry basis.