The global demand of textile fibres is gradually increasing following the global megatrends such as population growth, prosperity growth, sustainability and limited production potential of cotton. Thus, more man-made cellulosic fibres are potentially needed to fill in the ‘fibre demand gap’ in the future. The IONCELL-F process is a newly invented process in which the ionic liquid 1,5-diazabicyclo [4.3.0]non-5-enium acetate ([DBNH][OAc]) is utilized as a solvent for cellulosic material and the resulting dope is processed in a dry jet-wet spinning process to form strong fibres.  The IONCELL-F process, a Lyocell-type fiber process, is considered to be a green fibre spinning technology. It showed to be very insensitive to the composition of lignocellulosic material and tolerates varying amounts of non-cellulosic components such as lignin and hemicelluloses.<br/>The main objective of the study was to investigate the spinnability of unbleached hemi-rich Kraft pulps from birch wood with different amounts of residual lignin ranging from 4% to 15%. All the pulps proved to be completely soluble in the ionic liquid in a 13 - 15 wt% concentration. Fibres were successfully spun from all prepared dopes and showed higher strength properties than commercial viscose fibres from unbleached high-purity dissolving pulps. The fibres can be potentially utilized in bio-composite as a reinforcing fiber considering its relatively high Young’s modulus. By using unbleached pulp as raw material, the overall process economy and environmental impact can be improved. This study demonstrates the possibility of using pulp with high lignin content as a raw material for fiber spinning.

Effect of lignin concentration in birch kraft pulp on fibre spinning from ionic liquid solutions

251st National Meeting (2016)

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