OPTIMIZATION OF CATALYZED ACETOSOLV FRACTIONATION OF PINE WOOD

Milled Pinus pinaster wood samples were subjected to delignification t reatments in HCl-catalysed acetic acid media. The effects of three ope rational variables (catalyst concentration, acetic acid concentration and liquor/wood ratio) were studied on both the extraction yield and t he solid residue composition. The experimental results obtained accord ing to an incomplete, factorial design of experiments, allowed the dev elopment of empirical models which were used for optimization. Under t he selected optimized operational conditions, solid residues containin g 8% lignin, 88.5% polysaccharide and 84.7% glucan were obtained at 45 .3% pulp yield. Further variations in temperature or duration of treat ments did not significantly improve the pulp yield.