Nanocellulose-reinforced corrugated medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11359334-B2
Application number	US-201916591666-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 3, 2019
Priority date	May 3, 2016
Publication date	Jun 14, 2022
Grant date	Jun 14, 2022

Abstract

The present invention provides a pulp product (e.g., paper) comprising cellulose and nanocellulose, wherein the nanocellulose is derived from the cellulose in a mechanical and/or chemical step that is separate from the main pulping process. The pulping process may be thermomechanical pulping or hydrothermal-mechanical pulping, for example. The pulp product is stronger and smoother with the presence of the nanocellulose. The nanocellulose further can function as a retention aid, for a step of forming the pulp product (e.g., in a paper machine). Other embodiments provide a corrugated medium pulp composition comprising cellulose pulp and nanocellulose, wherein the nanocellulose includes cellulose nanofibrils and/or cellulose nanocrystals and the nanocellulose may be hydrophobic. The nanocellulose improves the strength properties of the corrugated medium. In some embodiments, the cellulose pulp is a GreenBox+® pulp and the nanocellulose is derived from the AVAP® process.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A process for producing a corrugated medium pulp composition, said process comprising:
(a) obtaining a first pulp from a steam or hot-water extraction of a first amount of lignocellulosic biomass;
(b) mechanically treating said first pulp to generate nanocellulose;
(c) obtaining a second pulp from a second amount of lignocellulosic biomass;
(d) combining at least a portion of said nanocellulose with said second pulp, to generate a pulp/nanocellulose mixture; and
(e) recovering or further processing said pulp/nanocellulose mixture as a corrugated medium pulp composition,
wherein said second pulp is obtained from fractionation of said second amount of lignocellulosic biomass in the presence of an acid catalyst, a solvent for lignin, and water.

2. The process of claim 1 , wherein said first amount of lignocellulosic biomass and said second amount of lignocellulosic biomass are from the same source of biomass.

3. The process of claim 1 , wherein said first amount of lignocellulosic biomass and said second amount of lignocellulosic biomass are from different sources of biomass.

4. The process of claim 1 , wherein said second pulp is selected from the group consisting of kraft pulp, sulfite pulp, soda pulp, mechanical pulp, thermomechanical pulp, chemithermomechanical pulp, hydrothermal-mechanical pulp, and combinations thereof.

5. The process of claim 1 , wherein said nanocellulose is lignin-coated hydrophobic nanocellulose.

6. The process of claim 1 , wherein said nanocellulose is predominantly in the form of cellulose nanofibrils.

7. A process for producing a corrugated medium pulp composition, said process comprising:
(a) obtaining a first pulp from a steam or hot-water extraction of a first amount of lignocellulosic biomass;
(b) mechanically treating said first pulp to generate nanocellulose;
(c) obtaining a second pulp from a second amount of lignocellulosic biomass;
(d) combining at least a portion of said nanocellulose with said second pulp, to generate a pulp/nanocellulose mixture; and
(e) recovering or further processing said pulp/nanocellulose mixture as a corrugated medium pulp composition,
wherein said nanocellulose is lignin-coated hydrophobic nanocellulose.

8. The process of claim 7 , wherein said first amount of lignocellulosic biomass and said second amount of lignocellulosic biomass are from the same source of biomass.

9. The process of claim 7 , wherein said first amount of lignocellulosic biomass and said second amount of lignocellulosic biomass are from different sources of biomass.

10. The process of claim 7 , wherein said second pulp is obtained from fractionation of said second amount of lignocellulosic biomass in the presence of an acid catalyst, a solvent for lignin, and water.

11. The process of claim 7 , wherein said second pulp is selected from the group consisting of kraft pulp, sulfite pulp, soda pulp, mechanical pulp, thermomechanical pulp, chemithermomechanical pulp, hydrothermal-mechanical pulp, and combinations thereof.

12. The process of claim 7 , wherein said nanocellulose is predominantly in the form of cellulose nanofibrils.

Assignees

• Granbio Intellectual Property Holdings Llc

Inventors

• Retsina Theodora
• Nelson Kimberly
• Hill Lee
• Pylkkanen Vesa
• Galliford Timothy J

Classifications

• D21C1/02

  with water or steam · CPC title

• D21H11/16 Primary

  modified by a particular after-treatment · CPC title

• D21H27/40 Primary

  at least one of the sheets being non-planar, e.g. crêped (crêping or corrugating paper B31F) · CPC title

• D21C9/007

  by mechanical or physical means · CPC title

• D21H11/08

  Mechanical or thermomechanical pulp · CPC title