The recent efforts on the quality of the wood used in pulp and paper mills has focused in many points, among them the influence of the raw material chemical characteristics in the production process and final product quality. Considering the current demand for younger trees, the effect of the wood harvesting age in the chemical composition and in the process variables becomes a very important fact for the industries of this sector. So, the objective of this study was to characterize Brazilian eucalypt clones, Eucalyptus grandis and Eucalyptus urograndis, both in different harvesting ages (1 to 8 years-old), for their chemical composition and kraft pulping parameters. Both chemical compositions of wood samples showed significant statistical variations due to the alteration of their harvesting ages. The glucan content, as well as cellulose content, basic density, and extractives tended to rise with the increase of harvesting age; while xylan and the other carbohydrate contents that compose the hemicelluloses tended to decline with the increase of the harvesting age, as well as uronic acids, acetyl groups, lignin, ashes, and S:G ratio. The 5 year-old wood samples showed the greatest pulping yield results for kappa number 17, and the yield at kappa number 17 showed strong correlation with glucan content. Keywords: wood quality; chemical pulping; eucalypt.
RESUMOOs recentes esforços na melhoria da qualidade da madeira para o abastecimento das fábricas de celulose e papel têm focado em muitos pontos, dentre estes, a influência das características químicas da matéria-prima no processo produtivo e na qualidade do produto final. Considerando a atual demanda por árvores mais jovens, o efeito da idade de corte da madeira na composição química e nas variáveis de processo, torna-se uma questão importante para as indústrias do setor. Em função disto, o objetivo do presente estudo foi caracterizar clones de eucalipto, Eucalyptus grandis e híbridos Eucalyptus urograndis, ambos em diferentes idades de corte (1 a 8 anos) quanto às suas composições químicas e parâmetros de polpação kraft. Ambas as composições químicas das madeiras mostraram variações estatísticas significativas devido
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