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Black liquor, a valuable by-product of the pulp production process, is used for the recovery of chemicals and serves as an energy source for the pulp mill. Before entering the recovery unit, black liquor runs through several stages of evaporation, wherein the solids content (SC) can be used to control the evaporation effectiveness. In the current study, the time-domain nuclear magnetic resonance (TD-NMR) technique was applied to determine the SC of black liquor. The TD-NMR system was modified for flowing samples, so that the black liquor could be pumped through the system, followed by the measurement of the spin-spin relaxation rate, R2. A temperature correction was also applied to reduce deviations in the R2 caused by the sample temperature. The SC was calculated based on a linear model between the R2 and the SC values determined gravimetrically, where good agreement was shown. The online TD-NMR system was tested at a pulp mill for the SC estimation of weak black liquor over seven days without any fouling, which demonstrated the feasibility of the method in a harsh industrial environment. Therefore, the potential of the TD-NMR technology as a technique for controlling the black liquor evaporation process was demonstrated.

Average carbon chain length is a key parameter that defines the quality of liquid biofuels. In this paper, a method for the determination of carbon chain lengths of fatty acid mixtures is presented. The approach is based on proton relaxation rates measured by time domain nuclear magnetic resonance. The spin–spin relaxation rates R 2 were used for the estimation of the carbon chain lengths. The method was examined for the set of samples with different mean lengths of the main linear carbon chain. Samples were prepared using four different fatty acids and mixtures of two, three or four of these fatty acids. The correlation coefficient between the known and measured values was equal to 0.994. Based on the relaxation theory, a linear-like dependence between the relaxation rate and carbon chain length was briefly shown, which endorses the experimental results. The developed methodology for determining carbon chain lengths offers robustness and rapidity, which are significant advantages when it comes to online use of the method in real industrial environments.