Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 2

Kruger is one of the largest Canadian company in wood transformation, papermaking, biomaterials and renewable energy with more than 110 years of history, 5000 employees and 19 manufacturing sites in North America. Nowadays, the newsprint paper, a predilection product of Canadian paper market, is in a free fall and jeopardises the existence of secular papermakers. Big companies like Kruger have no other option but to innovate in order to maintain and expand their economic activity. Recently, Innofibre, a college centre for the transfer of technology from Trois-Rivières College and CRML, a university research centre in lignocellulosic materials from Quebec University at Trois-Rivières, have developed a new pathway for the phosphorylation reaction of lignocellulosic fibers. The product, called phosphorylated fibers, has outstanding properties including fire retardant, ion exchange and water absorption capacity. However, the reaction has a significant drawback. The grafted phosphate moiety generates high repulsion charge at the surface, impairing the fibers capacity to bond each other and therefore to form a strength paper sheet. The purpose of this project will be to develop a fire retardant papermaking recipe from the phosphorylated lignocellulosic fibers without significant loose of paper strength. The influence of reaction parameters like fiber furnish, phosphorylation reagent, initial concentration, temperature, time, counter-ion species on the fire retardant efficiency and paper strength will be evaluated and quantified. At the end of the project, Innofibre will provide to Kruger a scalable best available technological solution to produce a fire retardant paper grade from phosphorylated lignocellulosic fibers.