ETHANOL-SODA PULPING OF SUGARCANE BAGASSE AND STRAW

Received July 12, 2013 The bagasse and straw of sugar cane correspond to the most important sugar industry wastes, and about 97 million tons of each are generated annually in Brazil. The bagasse and straw are lignocellulosic materials with potential for pulp production, especially when integrated in biorefinery processes. This paper presents the optimization of the pulping of bagasse and straw by using the soda/ethanol process conducted in a factorial experimental central composite design, with three independent variables (temperature, reaction time and concentration of ethanol in the cooking liquor) in three levels (minimum, intermediate and maximum). It was kept fixed relative to liquor/material (14/1 L/kg) and loads of soda for 15 and 10% bagasse and straw, respectively. The bagasse was more suitable to the pulp production than straw. The optimized conditions of temperature, time and concentration of ethanol for the pulp production of bagasse and straw with kappa number 12 ± 0.3 were, respectively, 195 °C-90 minutes-25% ethanol and 195 °C-150 minutes-25% ethanol.