Cellulose (2024) 31:3129–3142

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-024-05804-0

ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Fractionation of wood due to industrial chipping: effects

and potential for Kraft pulping of European spruce
Roman Poschner · Caterina Czibula ·
Adelheid Bakhshi · Thomas Harter ·
Rene Eckhart · Ulrich Hirn

Received: 29 September 2023 / Accepted: 12 February 2024 / Published online: 3 March 2024
© The Author(s) 2024

Abstract The research conducted on kraft cooking Keywords Chip size · Yield · Screening · Fiber
of for different chip sizes is often not representative length · Spruce
for the industrial process since the chip size fractions
were made of high-quality wood without impurities.
We evaluated the effects and the potential of cooking Introduction
non ideal spruce chip fractions after industrial chip-
ping and screening. The chips were classified accord- Due to the large scale of the industrial Kraft pulping
ing to SCAN 40:01, and the respective fractions were process improvements in terms of yield or resource
cooked under the identical conditions to mimic the efficiency are having a large economical and ecologi-
effect of a joint cooking in the industrial digester. For cal impact. In addition to cooking parameters such as
the undersized chips we found higher bark content, a temperature, time, effective alkali or liquor-to-wood
lower screened yield, a higher Kappa number, lower ratio, chip dimensions are considered to be of vital
fiber length and lower tensile strength. For the over- importance in kraft pulping. Several studies focused
sized chips, the fiber length and tensile index were on the influence of chip size at laboratory scale, with
also considerably lower. A lower wood quality due chip thickness emerging as a critical value (Hartler
to high knot content in the larger fractions was found and Onisko 1962; Gullichsen et al. 1992; Tikka et al.
to be the reason for that. Based on the data obtained 1993). Based on data from laboratory experiments,
from the experiments and literature, different process modeling approaches were undertaken to understand
options for increased yield and reduced chemical con- the kinetics of the process and its dependence on chip
sumption are discussed, e.g., separate cooking of dif- geometry (Akhtaruzzaman et al. 1980; Gustafson
ferent chip fractions. Improved chip screening seems et al. 1983; Dang and Nguyen 2008).
to be the process improvement with lowest costs and Experiments were usually conducted with labora-
highest impact. tory made wood chips, in which logs were cut to the
desired chip dimensions and then cooked under spe-
cific conditions. A chip thickness of about 3 mm or
1/8 inch proved to be favorable for kraft pulping as
R. Poschner · C. Czibula · A. Bakhshi · T. Harter · it provides the best results in terms of yield, screen-
R. Eckhart · U. Hirn (*) ings, pulp homogeneity and pulp properties (Bor-
Institute of Bioproducts and Paper Technology, Graz lew and Miller 1969). In kraft pulping, a distinction
University of Technology, Inffeldgasse 23, 8010 Graz,
is made between total yield, i.e., the total amount of
Austria
e-mail: ulrich.hirn@tugraz.at pulp produced, and screened yield, i.e., the amount

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 3130 Cellulose (2024) 31:3129–3142

of pulp that passes through the screening process. to increase yield by using a separate equipment for
During the screening, rejects like knots and shives digesting undersized fractions. Further, mechanical
are removed from the pulp. Knots are incompletely treatment like crushing of the oversized fractions is
cooked wood chips, often caused by insufficient used for kraft cooking.
impregnation of large/oversized wood chips or dense In this work we are determining effects and the
wood pieces. Shives are incompletely disintegrated potential of using oversized and undersized wood
or cooked fiber bundles. According to Quinde, the chip fractions in separate production lines. In contrast
ideal chip dimensions are 25 mm in length and 4 mm to the existing literature, we are focusing on industrial
in thickness (Augusto Quinde 2020a, b). Thicker or chips from a pulp mill. A chip sample from a Euro-
larger chips tend to result in higher total yield, but pean pulp mill was classified, and the individual size
at the same time in an increased rejects content and fractions were lab-cooked under the same cooking
lower screened yield (Colombo et al. 1964). Thin- conditions. The resulting pulp was analyzed for yield,
ner or smaller chips are overcooked in the process fiber length, Kappa and tensile strength. Based on
when treated under the same conditions. This results that data process recommendations for more efficient
in lower Kappa and reject content, but also in lower pulping are given.
total- and screened yield (Gullichsen et al. 1992).
On an industrial scale, logs are not cut to a spe-
cific chip size, but to a target chip thickness. Smaller Materials and methods
and larger chips are produced inevitably. According
to the work of Akhtaruzzaman et al., the difference Chip sample preparation and chip size analysis
between industrial and handmade chips is less pro-
nounced in smaller chip fractions (Akhtaruzzaman Spruce chips were industrially produced and provided
and Virkola 1979b). However, as chips get thicker, by a European industrial pulp mill. A simplified pro-
deviations become observable. Larger chips are sub- cess scheme of chip production is illustrated in Fig. 1.
jected to high mechanical stress during industrial Logs of spruce are debarked on a debarking drum
processing. These stresses cause the chips to break, which has an average yearly debarking loss of 0.86%.
partially delaminate and leave cracks on their surface The debarked logs, having an average dry content of
(Hatton and Keays 1973). Consequently, the impreg- 62.14%, are chipped on a horizontal chipper utilizing
nation behavior of thick industrial chips is better than turn knives. The knives are adjusted to give an aver-
that of handmade chips of the same size. To produce age chip thickness of 4 mm. The chips are then trans-
the same amount of rejects from 4.5 mm laboratory ported to the chip pile for storage. Before the spruce
chips, technical chips with a thickness of 10 mm are chips are processed in the digester, they are classified
required (Hatton 1975). into coarse (S2–retained by 7.5 mm slots), accept
In more recent literature (Luu and Shariff 2003; (S1–passing through 7.5 mm slots, retained 6 mm
Morton et al. 2012), technical chips from pulp mills squares) and fine fractions (S3–passing through 6 mm
were classified according to their thickness, prior to squares) by screening. The fine reject is transported to
laboratory kraft cooking. Thick fractions (> 8 mm) the bark pile while the oversized rejects are shredded
turned out to be undercooked, which resulted in a in the re-chipper to reduce their size (to a thickness
high rejects content and low screened yield. Thin of approximately 4.5–5 mm) and, subsequently, reen-
fractions (< 2 mm) were overcooked, which resulted tered the screening process.
in no rejects but a slightly lower screened yield. Simi- The provided online measurement data of the
lar results for the reject rates were found in other pub- chip dimensions were recorded by an Andritz
lications (Becker 1992). Although fines end up in the ScanChip system both after the chipper as well as
digester on an industrial scale, they were not included after the thickness screening. The chip sample for
in those experiments. the experimental part of this work was taken after
In the process of chipping, significant amounts of the screening and included solely the accept frac-
undersized and oversized chips are produced, passing tion (S1) which is going from the pile to the digester
through screens and entering the digester (MacLeod in the industrial process. The chips were subse-
2007). MacLeod noted that it may be advantageous quently screened into their respective size fractions

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Fig. 1  Wood handling process scheme of the pulp mill. After thickness screening the chips are divided into 3 streams: accept stream
(S1), coarse reject stream (S2) and fine reject stream (S3). The wood chips for this work were sampled from the S1 accept stream

Fractions Class Weight

[mm] percentage [%]
F1 – oversize 45 Ø 0.5

F2 – overthick 8 // 8.4

F3A – large accept 13 Ø 70.7

F3B – small accept 7Ø 15.2

F4 – pins 3Ø 4.2

F5 – fines <3Ø 0.8

Ø ... hole diameter; // ... slit width

Fig. 2  Utilized screens for classification are shown next to the

chip fraction nomenclature. Hole sieves with specified diam-
eter Ø and slots with specified thickness//were used. Rightmost
column gives the mass fraction of the individual size classes.
The color coding of the fractions is used throughout this work

according to SCAN 40:01 on a Lorentzen & Wettre

laboratory screener. The size of the screen openings Fig. 3  Chip fractions obtained by the classification: F1 over-
and an illustration of the screening apparatus are sized/F2 overthick (top), F3A large accept/F3B small accept
presented in Fig. 2. The rightmost column in Fig. 2 (middle), F4 pins/F5 fines (bottom)
gives the mass fraction of the individual size classes
as determined by the screening.
The chip fractions, presented in Fig. 3, consisted equalize their moisture content, reaching 93% solids
of oversized chips (F1—retained by 45 mm holes), content (ISO 638:2008).
overthick chips (F2—retained by 8 mm slits), large
accept chips (F3A—retained by 13 mm holes), Cooking of chips
small accept chips (F3B—retained by 8 mm holes),
pins (F4—retained by 13 mm holes) and fines (F5— Fraction F3A was used in pre-trials to optimize the
passing through 3 mm holes). The chips were stored cooking parameters in the rotary digester, which is
in paper bags in a room (at ~ 50% relative humid- depicted in Fig. 4. Several trial cooks were performed
ity; T =  ~ 23 °C) for approximately one month to to achieve a kappa number of 60 while also keeping

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110 °C for impregnation, which was held for 20 min.

The cooking temperature of 165 °C was reached
after 35 min and was held for 90 min. Cooling below
100 °C was done by slowly venting the system for
approximately 20 min. Ramp and hold times were
automated and adjusted using an electronic controller.
The digester was rotating 4 times per minute.
All chip fractions were cooked identically using
the cooking conditions found in the optimization pre-
trials for Fraction 3A and are shown in Table 1. An
H factor of about 1000 was obtained with the given
settings. Two cooks per chip fraction were performed
to evaluate the stability of the process and to achieve
reliable results. After the cooking process, a sam-
ple of black liquor was taken from inside the vessel
and the chips were defibrated in hot water for 10 min
using an L&W disintegrator at 3000 rpm. Then the
pulp was washed with hot water. Knots and shives
were separated using a modified Brecht-Holl fraction-
ator (based on Tappi standard T275), equipped with
Fig. 4  Rotary digester used for the experiments. The reactor 2.5 mm hole and 0.39 mm mesh screens. Yield was
lid is not present in the picture determined by weighing the total amount of pulp pro-
duced and dividing its dry weight by the dry weight
of the wood put into the digester.
the final pulp properties as close to industrial stand-
ards as possible. Steaming of the chips was achieved Pulp and paper analysis
by evaporating water inside the closed reactor vessel.
Once the set temperature of 105 °C was reached, the The standards followed for laboratory beating, labo-
atmosphere in the system was enriched with steam ratory hand sheet preparation and conditioning are
by venting the vessel for a few seconds. The ramp- listed in Table 2. The pulp and paper properties like
up time to reach the set temperature for steaming dry matter content, fiber length and tensile properties
was 23 min and the hold time at this temperature was were analyzed according to the standards discussed
20 min. After the steaming phase, the reactor was below.
opened to fill in the required amount of white liquor Kappa measurements were performed according
and additional water. Then, a ramp-up time of 27 min to ISO 302 and with an automated Fourier trans-
was required to reach the desired temperature of form near-infrared spectroscopy analyzer (FT-NIR)

Table 1  Parameters of the Ramp time Hold time [min] Tem-

individual process steps: [min] perature
steaming, impregnation [°C]
and cooking; showing the
ramp time, hold time and Steaming 23 20 105
temperature
Impregnation 27 20 110
The table shows the used Cooking 35 90 165
liquor to wood ratio,
effective alkali charge, Liquor to wood ratio (mass:mass) 7:1
sulfidity of the white liquor, Effective Alkali charge (wt% on wood) 19%
the mass of chips used per Sulfidity 34%
cook and number of cooks Mass of wood per cook 800 g (oven dry)
per fraction

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Table 2  Standards used for pulp and paper analysis Results and discussion
Kappa ISO 302
In the following section the results of the investigated
Determination of dry matter content ISO 638:2008 chip fractions—oversized (F1), overthick (F2), large
Determination of fibre length ISO 16065-2:2014 accept (F3A), small accept (F3B), pins (F4), and fines
Laboratory beating ISO 5264-2:2011 (F5)—are presented. The results of the chip size anal-
Preparation of laboratory sheets ISO 5269-2:2004 ysis, repeatability of the cooks, yield and Kappa, fiber
Standard atmosphere for conditioning ISO 187:1990 length and paper strength are discussed. Further, dif-
Determination of tensile properties ISO 1924-3:2005 ficulties of pulping the fines fraction, bark impurities
in smaller chip fractions and the knot content in larger
chip fractions are addressed.
from FITNIR. Two cooks per chip fraction were
performed and analyzed separately. Chip size analysis after the chipper and screener
For wood analysis, the chip fractions were
ground to a particle size of 200 µm with a Retsch The results of the chip size analysis for the entire
ZM 200 mill. The powder was analyzed for its ash year 2021, recorded with an Andritz ScanChip sys-
content according to TAPPI T211. The brightness tem at the pulp mill, are presented in Fig. 5a. The
(at 457 nm) of the wood powder was evaluated by values stated here are the monthly averages over
mechanically pressing it into tablets and subse- the year 2021. The solid lines show that quite large
quent brightness analysis with an L&W Elrepho amounts of oversized- and overthick chips (1.0%
color measurement instrument (based on ISO F1 & 7.9% F2), but also pins and fines (3.7% F4
2470-2:2008). The cross-sections of undercooked & 0.8% F5) were produced during chipping. The
wood particles, which are shown in Fig. 8b, were majority of chips after the chipper consisted of
inspected by embedding the particles in resin and large accept and small accept chips (73.0% F3A &
microtome-cutting the embedded sample with a 13.6% F3B). The screens upstream of the digester
diamond knife. Then, an image of the cross-section were not able to separate larger and smaller wood
was recorded by optical microscopy (Wiltsche et al. chip fractions effectively, so the majority still
2011; Lorbach et al. 2012). entered the cooking process. The best separation
efficiency was achieved for the oversized chips (F1),

100.00 100.00
25.00
chip fraction [%]

25.00
chip fraction [%]

5.00
5.00
1.00
1.00
0.20
F1 F2 F3A F3B F4 F5 bark
0.04 0.20
F1 F2 F3A F3B F4 F5
oversized overthick large small pins fines
accept accept
industrial screening (average 2021)
(a) (b) laboratory screening

Fig. 5  (a) Weight percentage of chip fractions recorded by aged weight percentage of the chip fractions after the indus-
Andritz ScanChip system over the year 2021 (logarithmic trial screening over the whole year 2021 is shown as col-
scale). The continuous lines represent the chip fractions after umns, while the solid pink markers represent the results from
the industrial horizontal chipper, dashed lines represent the the laboratory screening of the chips used in the experiments
chip fractions after the industrial thickness screener (S1 in (logarithmic scale). The error bars represent a 95% confidence
Fig. 1). The amount of bark remaining in the chips after the interval
screener is depicted as a brown dashed line. (b) The aver-

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decreasing their relative amount to 0.4%. After the the industrial process was not very efficient for the
screening, the proportion of the overthick fraction mill investigated.
(F2) increased to 8.6%. Surprisingly, the relative
amount of the large accept fraction (F3A) decreased Repeatability of the experiments
to 70.7%. The chip mixture S1 after screening had
an increasing content of the small accept fraction The repeatability of the lab cooking procedure was
and pins (15.3% F3B and 4.3% F4). The breaking of evaluated by repeating six cooks of the large accept
larger chips into smaller pieces due to mechanical fraction (F3A) under the conditions described in
impacts during transport and processing, and stor- Table 1, but using a white liquor with 38% sulfidity.
age on the pile should be the reason for that. The The results for the yield and kappa analysis of those
number of fines in S1 stayed approximately constant cooks are shown in Fig. 6. Figure 6a indicates that the
(0.8% F5) compared to after the chipper. The brown total- and screened yield of fraction F3A were very
dashed line in Fig. 5a shows that the chips were similar, as hardly any knots and shives were produced
slightly but consistently contaminated with bark under these cooking conditions. Figure 6b depicts the
throughout the entire year with an average of 0.24%. variation of Kappa. The data shows that the Kappa
The bark contamination was quite low and the vari- value between the cooking experiments has a higher
ation over the year was very stable compared to variation than the yield. Please note that these results
the variations often reported in the literature (Hart are caused by the variation of the pulping process
2009), considering that debarking is much more dif- plus the variation of the Kappa measurement, which
ficult in winter than in spring or summer. is probably one of the causes why the variation of the
The values for the laboratory screening of the chip Kappa value was higher.
sample drawn for this work are compared to the aver- Overall, the repeatability of Kappa and yield
age results for industrial screening at the mill for the measurements shows that differences of 3.69 Kappa
entire year 2021. The overall ratio of the chip frac- points (2σ) and 1.87% yield (2σ) between individual
tions from the laboratory screening (0.5% F1, 8.4% cooking trials are variations that are descending from
F2, 70.7% F3A, 15.2% F3B, 4.2% F4, 0.8% F5) pulping and measurement methods. When comparing
agreed very well with the 2021 results from indus- results from different cooking procedures, at a confi-
trial screening, demonstrating that our chip sample dence level of 95% we have to expect an uncertainty
is representative for the industrial process in the mill of ± 1.96σ/√n for the resulting values of Kappa and
investigated. yield (n being the number of repeats of the cooking
The results also show that under the given circum- trial). So, comparing differences between individual
stances, the separation of nonideal chip fractions in cooks (n = 1), need a Kappa difference of and 3.61

Fig. 6  Repeatability boxplots of 6 identical lab cooks. (a) Screened pulp yield (left) and total pulp yield (right). (b) Kappa

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Cellulose (2024) 31:3129–3142 3135

and a yield difference of 1.83 to confirm a statisti- yield to approximately 46–47%). The pulp of F1 and
cally significant difference. For two repeat cooks, like F2 exhibited a higher Kappa than the accept frac-
in this work, the threshold for statistical significance tions F3A and F3B. This is consistent with the lit-
is a difference of 2.56 Kappa points or 1.30% yield. erature that kraft pulping of large chips gives a high
We would like to point out that this variation is not total yield, but also a high rejects content with a low
uncommon at all for lab pulping investigations. screened yield and higher average Kappa (Colombo
The main factors influencing the repeatability of et al. 1964). The average yield loss due to rejects was
the cooks in our opinion are the sampling of wood 5.4% for the oversized fraction (F1) and 4.6% for the
chips, the kraft pulping in the rotating digester (mix- overthick fraction (F2).
ing of the liquor and chips), the downstream pulp pro- The pins (F4) and fines (F5) produced barely any
cessing (separation of shives and knots form the pulp) screenable rejects, so the total yield was equal to the
and the sampling of the pulp. Finally, the uncertainty screened yield. Both undersized fractions had a sig-
of the measurement method is also contributing. nificantly lower screened yield compared to F3A
or F3B. This was to be expected, as the small chip
Yield and Kappa results geometry should lead to overcooking of the mate-
rial when cooked under the same cooking conditions
Figure 7 shows the screened yield and total yield (Morton et al. 2012; Quinde 2020a, b). Overcook-
depicted over Kappa numbers. The results suggest ing of smaller fractions dissolves more lignin from
that for the two cooks that were performed per chip the wood, which should lead to a lower Kappa num-
fraction, the yield was significantly more stable com- ber, but also to a lower screened yield. However, the
pared to the Kappa. Also, the variation between the Kappa number of the pins and fines was higher than
repeats is statistically not significant. Both of had to that of the small and large accept fractions. Also, the
be expected from the repeatability trials. The total yield at equivalent Kappa should be equal or higher
yield was almost identical to the screened yield for for the small chip fractions according to literature,
most fractions, except for the oversized (F1) and over- which was not the case (Akhtaruzzaman and Virkola
thick chips (F2). Their total yield was equal to that 1979a; Gullichsen et al. 1995).
of large accept (F3A) and small accept chips (F3B) In summary the higher Kappa and lower screened
(approximately 51–52% total yield). However, due yield of the large fractions has been expected, as the
to the high number of rejects, the screened yield of inner parts of the chips are not sufficiently delignified.
F1 and F2 was in the same order of magnitude as for However, for the small fractions Kappa was higher
the undersized fractions (rejects lowered the screened than expected while exhibiting a lower yield at the
same time.
56
Difficulties in kraft pulping of the fine fraction
54
52
The kraft pulping of fines (F5) surprisingly turned
Yield [%]

50 out to be problematic. Small, undercooked particles

48 (displayed in Fig. 8a) remained in the final pulp. It
46 was not possible to separate these particles by using
44 the 0.39 mm mesh sieve during screening. To fur-
42 ther investigate these rejects and to exclude structural
55 58 61 64 67 70
effects, microtome cutting of single particles from a
Kappa []
F1 total F2 total F3A total F3B total F4 total F5 total
batch like in Fig. 8a was performed. In Fig. 8b, an
F1 screened F2 screened F3A screened F3B screened F4 screened F5 screened optical micrograph is depicted. Here, one can see that
the fibers within such a reject particle are still closely
Fig. 7  Screened/unscreened yield versus Kappa of the chip bound together and show clear lumina. The thickness
fractions: Triangles represent the total yield, dots represend of the cell walls as well as the size of the lumina is
screened yield; dashed arrows highlight the amount of yield
that is lost through rejects. Two cooks per chip fraction were varying, showing layers of earlywood and latewood,
performed as expected. After kraft pulping of the fines (F5) in

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indicate a brightness decrease with decreasing chip

size, starting with a brightness of 54% of the over-
sized fraction (F1) and ending with 35% brightness
of the fines fraction (F5). The overthick fraction (F2)
deviates slightly from the brightness trend, which was
also visible in the picture (Fig. 9a).
The results for the ash content are presented in
Fig. 9c. The ash content of the fractions was increas-
ing with decreasing chip size (0.38% ash in F1–0.59%
ash in F5). Pins (F4) and fines (F5) had a signifi-
cantly higher ash content compared to the other chips.
The higher ash content and the color gradient of the
chip powders are strong indicators for a higher bark
Fig. 8  (a) Small, undercooked particles fractionated from
fraction F5 using the Brecht-Holl fractionator with a 0.39 mm
content in smaller chip fractions. The brittle bark
sieve; (b) microtome cutted particle image of the undercooked on larger chip fractions was probably crushed into
material smaller pieces due to the mechanical impacts during
transport, pile storage, and chip handling. The small
bark particles then accumulated in the smaller frac-
the rotary digester, these particles were found to be tions during screening.
stuck on the surface and corners of the vessel. This The kraft pulping of bark results in a higher Kappa
undercooked material was most likely the result of number and a lower screened yield when cooked
insufficient mixing of cooking liquor and wood par- under the same conditions as wood chips (Miranda
ticles inside the rotary reactor. However, since the et al. 2012). Hence, the higher bark content in smaller
undercooked material in F5 should contain more chip fractions explains the higher Kappa at smaller
lignin, it should have contributed to a higher total yield in Fig. 7. Nevertheless, a different publication
yield. This was not observed, leading to the investiga- suggests that a greater concentration of bark should
tion of the bark content in the chip fraction. be found in thicker chip fractions. However, this study
focused on hemlock wood rather than spruce (Becker
Bark impurities in chip fractions 1992).

After visual examination of the pins (F4) and fines

(F5), a higher content of dark spots in the unpro-
cessed material of those fractions became apparent. A Strength properties of chip fractions
higher bark content was thought to be the cause, but
it was impossible to separate the dark particles from According to the literature, the tensile strength should
the smaller fractions without affecting the result. The increase with decreasing chip thickness or increas-
bark of spruce contains a higher proportion of ash ing chip length (JHatton and Keays 1973; Akhtaruz-
and lignin than stem wood (Timell and Ramalingam zaman and Virkola 1980; Morton et al. 2012). Both,
1964). Samples of all chip fractions were collected chip length and thickness decreased from F1–F5.
and grounded in a Retsch rotor mill. A clear color Laboratory PFI refining of the pulps from the respec-
difference was visible after the wood material was tive fractions was done and paper properties such
milled, as seen in Fig. 9a. The powder of larger chips as tensile strength measured. The tensile index as a
exhibited the highest visual brightness while smaller function of paper density is presented in Fig. 10a.
fractions exhibited a darker tone. The only exception The individual data points are representing differ-
was the overthick fraction (F2), which was darker ent degrees of PFI refining of the pulp, compare
in appearance than the large accept chips (F3A). To Fig. 10b. A higher tensile strength at a given density
quantify that, the powders were pressed into pellets is favorable.
and brightness measurements were done. The results The undercooked particles of the fines pulp
of the analysis are presented in Fig. 9b and clearly fraction had a considerable impact on the paper

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Cellulose (2024) 31:3129–3142 3137

60 0.7
55 0.6

Ash content of chips [%]

50
0.5
Brightness [%]

45
0.4
40
0.3
35
0.2
30
25 0.1

20 0.0
(b) F1 F2 F3A F3B F4 F5 (c) F1 F2 F3A F3B F4 F5

Fig. 9  (a) powders obtained by grinding the chip fractions. content of the chip fractions. The results represent one-time
From left to right: oversized-(F1), overthick- (F2), large measurements of the well-mixed chip powder. The error bars
accept- (F3A), small accept chips (F3B), pins (F4), fines (F5); represent the standard error of the measurement according to
(b) results of brightness measurements of the powders; (c) ash the standards (ISO 2470-2:2008 and Tappi T211)

110 110
tensile index [Nm/g]
tensile index [Nm/g]

90 90

F1 - oversized
70 70
F1 - oversized F2 - overthick
F2 - overthick F3A - large accept
F3A - large accept 50 F3B - small accept
50 F4 - pins
F3 - small accept
F4 - pins F5 - fines
F5 - fines 30
30 0 2500 5000 7500 10000 12500
400 500 600 700 800 refining intensity
(a) paper density [kg/m³] (b) [rev PFI]

Fig. 10  (a) tensile index versus density of the respective chip fractions at different beating degrees illustrated as dots (increasing
refining intensity from left to right); (b) tensile strength as a function of refining intensity

strength of the initial unrefined pulp. The solid intensity. In the process of refining the pulp, the
particles, which were also visible in the produced undercooked particles in F5 were probably disinte-
paper, hindered fiber–fiber interactions and created grated, which allowed their fibers to properly con-
weak spots in the paper. However, the difference tribute to the paper strength eventually. This was
between the pulp from fraction F5 and the other also apparent when looking at the paper produced
fractions became smaller with increasing refining after refining, which was much more homogeneous.

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3.5 8
F1 - oversized
F2 - overthick
3 F3A - large accept
length weighted average

length weighted [%]

6 F3B - small accept
2.5
fiber length [mm]

F4 - pins

frenquency
2 F5 - fines
4
1.5

1 2

0.5
0
0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
(a) F1 F2 F3A F3B F4 F5 (b) Fiber length [mm]

Fig. 11  (a) Length-weighted average fiber length of the pulps from the respective chip fractions, (b) fiber length distribution

Nonetheless, the tensile strength of fraction F5 was Fiber length distributions of industrial chip fractions
the weakest.
The obtained strength properties of fraction F4 The breaking length or tensile index is related to
were quite good, but still a bit lower than those the fiber length, among other effects (Wangaard and
of F3A and F3B. The small accept chips (F3B) Woodson 1973). The fiber length of the pulp from all
emerged as the fraction with the highest paper fractions was investigated. It was expected that the
strength, followed by the large accept fraction smaller the chip length, the more frequently the fibers
(F3A). were cut on average during the chipping process, and
The tensile strength of the overthick fraction therefore the average fiber length should be shorter
(F2) was very similar to that of the pins fraction (Rydholm 1965; Akhtaruzzaman and Virkola 1979b).
(F4). The oversized fraction (F1) showed signifi- The results for the length-weighted average fiber
cantly lower paper strength than the other chip length of the different pulps is presented in Fig. 11a.
fractions, with the exception of the fine fraction. The course of the average fiber length reflected the
Figure 10b depicts the tensile index at given results of the tensile strength measurement.
refining intensity. Here it can be seen that the The large accept (F3A) and small accept frac-
potential for strength development through refin- tion (F3B) exhibited the highest average fiber length
ing is better for the small and large accept fractions with 2.78 and 2.84 mm respectively. The fines frac-
(F3A & F3B). While the tensile index development tion (F5) had the shortest average fiber length with
of the oversized, overthick, pins and fines fractions 1.73 mm, which was expected. Also, F4 (2.49 mm)
has leveled out at approximately 7500 PFI revolu- was shorter than F3, which is plausible. Contrary to
tions, it appears that the strength properties of F3A the expectations, the oversized fraction (F1) and the
and F3B can be further developed through refining. overthick fraction (F2) had a considerably smaller
Overall, the strength properties of the pulp fiber length than F3—similar to of F4—despite these
from fines (F5) were the worst. The pulp from the chips being larger than F3.
oversized fraction exhibited surprisingly low val- The fiber length distribution in Fig. 11b confirms
ues, while the tensile index from overthick chips a shift of fraction F1 and F2 to a lower fiber length.
and pins was quite good. Both the large and small This means that the difference in average fiber length
accept fractions yielded the highest paper strength. between the oversized- and accept fractions was not
The cause for the observed paper strength of these only due to a higher fines content. The frequency dis-
fractions was probably their fiber length (see tribution of F4 revealed a greater proportion of large
Fig. 11b). fibers in comparison to F1 and F2, although these
two fractions consisted of much larger and thicker
chips. The distribution of fiber length in the pins

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fraction follows a pattern more closely aligned with Brändström’s measurements of the fiber proper-
the acceptance fractions than F1 and F2, where a peak ties of Norway Spruce showed that the fiber length
is observed at shorter fiber lengths. Hence, it is sug- of the knots (1.3 mm) was 50% shorter than that of
gested that the variations in fiber length and tensile the stem wood (Brändström et al.). Even the so-called
strength of F1 and F2 may be attributed to differences knotty wood (wood surrounding the knots) exhibited
in wood composition rather than the chip size itself. a shorter fiber length (2.0 mm) than the stem wood
(2.6 mm). In conclusion the lower fiber length in
Knots in industrial chip fractions knots and knotty wood explains the lower fiber length
of the oversized (F1) and overthick chips (F2) frac-
Akhtaruzzaman likewise observed in his dissertation tions, and thus also their lower tensile index (see
that as chip thickness increased, fiber length and ten- Figs. 10 and 11).
sile strength decreased (Akhtaruzzaman and Virkola Although a high number of knots in the oversized-
1980). He pointed out that thicker chips from indus- and overthick fraction has been discussed, the direct
trially chipped wood would experience more damage quantitative analysis of knot content in different chip
and fiber shortening during processing. But he also fractions was found to be challenging. However,
stated that industrially produced thick chips might future analysis might be facilitated by chemical analy-
contain higher amounts of heartwood, compression sis, exploiting the considerably high lignan content in
wood and branch wood, which influences the cooking knots (Holmbom et al. 2003).
behavior.
A visual examination of the wood raw material Process alternatives and potential for undersized‑ or
from the respective chip fractions gave the impression oversized chips
that the larger chips (F1 and F2) had a very high pro-
portion of knots. The estimation of knots in smaller The analysis of the chip fractions has shown that there
fractions proved difficult because visual differentia- is a rather high proportion of pins (F4), fines (F5),
tion from the small chips was impossible. overthick- (F2) and oversized (F1) chips in the indus-
According to the publication of Axegård, more trial process even after screening (see Fig. 5). When
than 90% of the chips that contain knots are found in these fractions are cooked together with the accept
the oversized- and overthick chip fraction while less fraction under the same conditions, some potential is
than 1% of accept fraction chips contain knots (Axe- certainly lost.
gård 1978). In the work of Cáceres et al., the aver-
age chip thickness was correlated to the knot content Undersized chips
in black spruce logs, they found that the average chip
thickness increased with the knot content (Cáceres Processing smaller chip sizes results in yield losses
et al. 2016). In another paper the same group found due to overcooking (Quinde 2020a, b), which could
that the density of white spruce knots was 2.4 times be counteracted by cooking them in a separate
higher than the density of clear wood. Consequently, digester to achieve similar kappa and yield (Gulli-
knots required up to eight times more cutting force chsen et al. 1995). While F5 produces clearly lower
than clear wood (Cáceres et al. 2018). This is likely quality pulp, the strength potential from the pin chips
to be a key factor in why the oversized- and overthick F4 is nearly as good as the pulp of the accept fractions
chips are created during the chipping process in the (see Fig. 10). It would be possible to cook only F5,
first place. but also F4 in a separate digester. Sawdust and pins
The described high density of the knots is affect- from sawmill may be added as additional cheap raw
ing the impregnation- and cooking behavior (Ulla material here. However, the accumulation of bark in
Sahlberg 1995), which additionally contributes to the smaller chip fractions could increase dark spots in the
high reject content for the oversize/overthick frac- pulp and paper strength will suffer due to the shorter
tions F1 and F2 (see dashed lines in Fig. 7). The pro- fiber length (see Fig. 11). The separation of pins and
duced rejects themselves seemed to have a knot-like fines from the chips entering the main digester could
appearance. potentially increase the process stability and produc-
tion output by decreasing digester disturbances such

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 3140 Cellulose (2024) 31:3129–3142

as channeling, hang ups or screen clogging (Quinde digester together with the optimized chips and cause
2020a, b; Rahman et al. 2022). The resulting pulp deviations in the process quality. The mill is a mod-
should also have higher quality. ern mill in Europe with state-of-the-art equipment. It
can thus be suspected that poor chip screening effi-
Oversized chips ciency is also common for other pulping operations
worldwide. Increasing the screening efficiency and
Usually, oversized chips are rechipped or crushed. separating the fines fraction F5 (for incineration) and
During rechipping a substantial number of pins and the oversize fractions F1 and F2 for rechipping should
fines are formed (Kreft and Javid 1989). The crushing bear potential for a low CAPEX investment, has the
of chips led to a lower reject content while keeping potential for cost savings (yield increase, reject reduc-
the pins and fines generation at a low level (MacLeod tion) and quality increase.
and Dort 2005). They also observed a lower paper
strength and fiber length, which they attributed to Pulp quality of over‑ and undersized chips
mechanical fiber damage. Following Brändström’s
findings (Brändström et al. 2005) and our results (see Cooking smaller chip fractions, i.e., pins (F4) and
Figs. 10 and 11), we attribute the observed lower fiber fines (F5), we expectedly (Gullichsen et al. 1992)
length and paper strength to the high knot content in found lower screened yields but unexpectedly
the overthick and oversized fraction. Chips from F1 (Akhtaruzzaman and Virkola 1979a) found higher
and F2 are hence reducing the quality of the pulp kappa values compared to the accept fractions (see
even after rechipping or crushing. The high wood Fig. 7). Due to high ash content and lower bright-
density (Cáceres et al. 2018) and the elevated lignin ness in F4 and F5 we attributed this to a higher bark
content of knots furthermore reduces pulp quality due content. The brittle bark on the larger chips probably
to higher shive content. Thus, it could be an option broke into smaller pieces due to mechanical interac-
to also cook shredded oversized chis in a separate tions and accumulated in smaller fractions. While the
digester, reducing rejects and chemical consumption, fraction F5 gives really low quality pulp, the proper-
and increasing yield. ties of F4 are only moderately deteriorated compared
The yield of F1 and F2 could be increased by 5.4 to the accept fraction.
and 4.6%, respectively, provided no rejects are gener- Thicker chip fractions, i.e., oversize (F1) and
ated when cooking the shredded knots. overthick (F2) chips, had considerably lower ten-
Finally, it would be possible to join F5, F4 and the sile strength than the accept fractions, as reported
rechipped F1 and F2 to produce a lower quality pulp in the literature (Akhtaruzzaman and Virkola 1980).
fraction for applications where the mechanical perfor- Being not fully cooked due to their oversize, they
mance of the pulp is less relevant. At the same time produced a significant amount of screening reject.
the main fraction can be produced at higher efficiency Unexpectedly, the average fiber length was substan-
and quality in the main digester. tially shorter. A visual inspection of chips and litera-
The benefits of such a process needs to be proven, ture (Axegård 1978) suggest a much higher content
e.g., by additional experiments combined with a of knots. The inherent characteristics of knots, such
LCA, but has to be left for future work to come. as short fiber length, higher lignin content, and high
density, are explaining the lower pulp quality. So
knots are, first, leading to oversized chips in chipping
Conclusions and, second, even at correct size to insufficient defib-
eration in pulping and lower fiber length.
Low screening efficiency in the industrial
environment Process potential

In the pulp mill investigated, there are large pro- It can be considered to cook the undersized fractions
portions of oversized and undersized chips due to F4 and F5 separately, obtaining a lower quality pulp
the poor separation efficiency of the post-chipping fraction but process- and quality improvements for the
screening. These non-ideally sized chips enter the main fraction and an overall yield increase. Also, the

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Cellulose (2024) 31:3129–3142 3141

oversized fractions F1 and F2 could be cooked sepa- images or other third party material in this article are included
rately after rechipping, also obtaining a lower quality in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated
otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not
pulp fraction and process- and yield improvements in included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your
the main process. It might be considered to combine intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds
undersized and rechipped oversized fractions to a the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly
lower quality pulp fraction. This is straightforward to from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
implement for batch cooking mills, which are not so
common. For continuous digesters this would require
investing into a separate, smaller digester. That is a
major investment that probably is only economically References
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