Effect of Nfc from Organosolv Corn Stalk Pulp on Retention and Drainage during Papermaking

Valuable chemical compounds can be produced from corn stalk in a biorefinery by means of the organosolv process. However, 41% of the corn stalk is cellulose, which is commonly used to produce bioethanol whose profitability is not high because of the cost of the process. The use of this cellulose to produce nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) could improve the profitability of the process. NFC has gained increasing interest as reinforcing additive in paper and composite materials, such as films, food packaging, emulsifiers and nanofilters. The objective of this research has been to study the effect of NFC, obtained from organosolv corn stalk pulp, on retention and drainage processes and its interaction with retention aids when NFC is used to reinforce recycled paper. Results showed that a low NFC dose (0.5 wt%) was required to increase by 20% the tensile index of paper, but it decreased the drainage rate. However, this effect could be overcome with the studied retention aids.