Co-refining interactions among white birch, hybrid larch and black spruce species

Abstract

Due to shortages of preferred wood species, introduction of less desirable species in mechanical pulping has become a reality. Mainly because of the striking differences in fiber morphology existing between various species, refining of mixtures of different species can be a challenge. In this work, we studied the possible synergistic effects of co-refining hybrid larch, white birch and black spruce. We observed that wood species and their proportions in the mixtures influence the degrees of interaction on energy consumption and paper properties.