Pulp Production and Processing : From Papermaking to High-Tech Products

Cellulose represents the most widely spread organic polymer found in nature and for a long time it has been used as a raw material for paper, textiles, film and flexible packing material. Due to its accessibility in huge amounts, via the photosynthetic process, it is a renewable material and is presently considered as a chance to answer many problems connected with sustainable development. This explains the great scientific interest in cellulose along with a preoccupation to systematise the accumulated information in reviews and books. This book presents the aspects of cellulose obtained in correlation with its integration into the new concept of biorefining. Thus, the usual technological steps of pulp manufacture (pulping, bleaching) will be detailed along with the chemical characteristics of by-products and their utilisation, fibre characterisation for obtaining paper, cellulose derivatives and special products as a result of cellulose processing (beads and microspheres, micro- and nanostructures, fibre production, their antibacterial properties, optical functional film and hydrogen). This extensive book should prove to be a very useful tool for scientists, students and postgraduates working in the field of pulp, paper and cellulose derivatives aiming at opening a new era for renewable resources processed by biorefining.