This investigation evaluates how higher reaction temperatures or oxidant reinforcement of caustic extraction affects chlorine dioxide consumption during elemental chlorine-free bleaching of North American hardwood pulps. Bleaching data from the published literature were used to develop statistical response surface models for chlorine dioxide delignification and brightening sequences for a variety of hardwood pulps. The effects of higher (EO) temperature and of peroxide reinforcement were estimated from observations reported in the literature. The addition of peroxide to an (EO) stage roughly displaces 0.6 to 1.2 kg chlorine dioxide per kilogram peroxide used in elemental chlorine-free (ECF) bleach sequences. Increasing the (EO) temperature by Δ20°C (e.g., 70°C to 90°C) lowers the overall chlorine dioxide demand by 0.4 to 1.5 kg. Unlike what is observed for ECF softwood bleaching, the presented findings suggest that hot oxidant-reinforced extraction stages result in somewhat higher bleaching costs when compared to milder alkaline extraction stages for hardwoods. The substitution of an (EOP) in place of (EO) resulted in small changes to the overall bleaching cost. The models employed in this study did not take into account pulp bleaching shrinkage (yield loss), to simplify the calculations.
On switching response surface models, with applications to the structural health monitoring of bridges
