Development of a laser backscattering Raman gauge for online wood pulp process control

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This plain language summary will be available to the public if your proposal is funded. Although it is not mandatory, you may choose to include your business telephone number and/or your e-mail address to facilitate contact with the public and the media about your research. Version française disponible Canadian northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK) market pulps lead the world in terms of fibre strength, length, fineness and uniformity This gives them an unmatched ability to add strength and durability to finished goods, driving a high international demand for NBSK pulp. However, advances in paper manufacturing technology worldwide have narrowed the gap between Canadian NBSK and inferior pulps, increasing price-performance pressure on Canadian suppliers. To sustain its leadership in the world marketplace, the Canadian pulp industry must devise and implement new process technologies that improve pulp quality properties, increase manufacturing efficiency, decrease energy use and reduce environmental impact. Industrial laboratories often use wet chemical analysis and physical tests to determine the properties of the pulp or paper and gauge its fitness for a particular end use. However, laboratory tests require time and and the efforts of highly skilled personal. The cost and inopportune timescale of such measurements prohibit their use for real-time process control. Spectroscopic methods have shown promise as a tool for pulp materials classification The multivariate analyses of pulp infrared, near-infrared and Raman spectra have proven effective in predicting many of the properties determined by wet chemical analysis, as well as network physical properties, such as tensile and tear strengths Unlike wet chemical methods, spectroscopic probes can function as online or at-line without the need for sample preparation. However, despite the proven utility of spectroscopic methods for predicting end-product physical and morphological properties in the laboratory, the high technological and dollar cost of entry has prevented their widespread adoption in industry. We propose to address this need. In collaboration with industry leader, Canfor Pulp Innovations, we propose to develop a cost-effective measurement system for the nondestructive analysis of in-process pulp fibres that is capable of predicting the chemical and physical attributes of a market pulp product and the paper sheet it can form.