Sunday, May 6, 2012

How Wood Pulp Becomes Paper

Internet Marketing Articles Sponsored by Moe Tamani, the Internet Marketing Consultant


How many times have we heard about the new paperless society , one that supposedly will no longer need printed copies, but will rely solely on computers? It may be a good concept, but that society is not yet here In fact, computers seem to have encouraged even more printing than before All that paper we use comes from wood pulp, a renewable product made from trees or recycled paper


Non recycled pulp used in paper production is 95 made from trees, many of which are farmed specifically for that purpose The best paper producing trees contain a large quantity of usable cellulose fiber, usually about 40 to 50 of the total weight of a tree Those cellulose fibers are bonded together with a substance called lignin, and contain other organic compounds and sugars Only the cellulose is really needed for paper making

To begin the process, the lignin and other organic materials have to be separated, in a process appropriately enough called pulping There are two different methods of making this woody soup Both methods are used even when paper is being made from recycled products, because the the cellulose in used paper is basically the same as that coming from a processed tree

The first method is mechanical Mechanical processing is used primarily to make the kind of paper suitable for newsprint, packaging, and other types of paper products that do not require strongly bonded fibers Chopping and grinding mechanisms reduce trees into a mushy soup, still containing most of the original lignin The fibers in this soup are short and stiff, and this kind of paper turns yellow or brown with sun exposure

Sometimes mechanically processed paper is combined with paper made by chemical processing Chemical processing makes use of heat, pressure and chemicals to dissolve the lignin in the wood, which releases the fibers of cellulose After cooking in a special industrial digester for a period of time, 90 to 95 of the lignin and other non cellulose ingredients are removed This is also known as the kraft process, and it produces a kind of black liquid as a byproduct

This black liquor, as it is called, has become a recycled source of power for the mill itself, being routinely burned as a source of energy The paper industry is extremely conscious of environmental issues Because pulp and paper mills swallow up very large amounts of natural resources, they make every effort not only to keep pollution down, but to reprocess used paper

There are limits, however, to the number of times paper can be reused The fibers get shorter and shorter each time they are mechanically processed On average, waste paper may be re pulped and reprocessed from three to six times Recycled paper requires somewhat more bleaching because it is made from a combination of different dyes and inks left over from previous incarnations Bleaching in the past has been highly environmentally toxic, but new methods have eliminated the need to use many harmful ingredients

Once bleached, the wood pulp is ready to be made into paper It undergoes an intricate process of layer building before it is sent to the final roller, which squeezes out the last of the water It is often dried with infrared heat Recycled paper typically looks a little off white or gray, while processed new paper is totally bleached The paper making industry will be a necessary part of our world for the foreseeable future, and is becoming a leader in industrial conservation and reuse of raw materials

Source:
How Wood Pulp Becomes Paper

Article By:
Adrianna Notton

Source: http://www.internet-marketing-cafe.com/Art/387694/377/How-Wood-Pulp-Becomes-Paper.html

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