Local filtration properties of Kraft lignin: The influence of residual xylan

Journal article, 2017

The influence of lignin and xylan interactions on the filtration properties of precipitated LignoBoost lignin was investigated. LignoBoost lignin was (i) suspended in acid water with xylan added and (ii) dissolved together with xylan and then re-precipitated. The resulting lignin-xylan mixtures were more difficult to filter than the original LignoBoost lignin, although the formed filter cake was also found more porous in the case of re-precipitated solids. Furthermore, the pressure dependency of the filtration properties was shown to increase after the addition of xylan. One possible explanation based on the findings presented in this paper is that xylan is sorbed at the surface of the lignin agglomerates: it increases the contact area between solid and liquid, thus making the particle structure more porous. The influence of ionic strength was also investigated through the addition of sodium sulphate: it was found that increasing the ionic strength of the slurries made the solids easier to separate, possibly due to a decrease in electrostatic repulsive interactions between the solids and the formation of a denser solid structure.