Natural surfactants in paper recycling

COLL 39

Kelley L Spence, klspence@ncsu.edu1, Orlando J. Rojas, ojrojas@ncsu.edu1, Richard A. Venditti2, and Justin Zoppe, jozoppe@ncsu.edu1. (1) Forest Biomaterials Science and Engineering, College of Natural Resources, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 8005, Raleigh, NC 27695, (2) Department of Wood and Paper Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-8005
The objective of this research was to evaluate surfactants based on renewable materials (sugar and protein-based surfactants) for use in ink removal from recycled paper via flotation deinking. By applying green chemistry approaches we aim to minimize the environmental impact of deinking agents and also to open an avenue for a number of products that are to be generated from the utilization of biomass. Foamability and foam stability by the respective surfactants were considered and detergency experiments via piezoelectric sensing were used to unveil their fundamental differences in terms of surface activity. We demonstrated that sugar-based surfactants are viable replacements to petroleum-based surfactants in flotation. Differences in ink removal efficiency were explained based on foaming, detergency and adsorption characteristics of the tested surfactants.
 

Surfactants from Renewable Resources
2:00 PM-4:50 PM, Sunday, April 6, 2008 Morial Convention Center -- Rm. 225, Oral

Division of Colloid & Surface Chemistry

The 235th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, April 6-10, 2008