Thermomechanical Pulping of Loblolly Pine Juvenile Wood

Intensive forest management, with a heavy emphasis on ecosystem management and restoring or maintaining forest health, will result in the removal of smaller diameter materials from the forest. This increases the probability of higher juvenile wood content in the harvested materials. The purpose of this study was to compare the performance of loblolly pine juvenile and mature wood unbleached thermomechanical pulp (TMP). The TMPs were prepared without screening (unscreened TMP) and after screening (screened TMP). Pulp and paper properties were tested. Paper made from screened juvenile and mature wood TMP had better properties than those of paper made from unscreened juvenile and mature wood TMP. The results also show that screened juvenile wood TMP consumed a large amount of electrical energy to produce a long-fibered pulp with low fines content and low coarseness. It might be possible to substitute the screened juvenile wood TMP for some of the reinforcing kraft pulp needed to manufacture newsprint and printing and writing papers. This could lower production costs of these paper grades.