The disclosure provides methods and compositions for reducing the viscosity of black liquor. Also provided are methods of inhibiting deposition of scale and methods of processing black liquor. In some embodiments, the compositions include a carboxylate-containing polymer and an inorganic salt. In some embodiments, the compositions include a carboxylate-containing polymer, an inorganic salt, and a surfactant.

An improved continuous process for production of cellulose from glass-like feedstock, which includes: (i) cooking of comminuted grass-like feedstock in white liquor which contains 0.5-2.0% w/w NaOH and 0.5-25.0% w/w NaCl at 95-100? C.; (ii) bleaching process of the brown cellulose in the white liquor of the same composition with oxygen (O.sub.2) and chlorine (Cl.sub.2) at 70-100? C., yielding bleached cellulose pulp; where, (iii) lignin and other side-products are separated by continuous electrolysis, where the white liquor is regenerated, together with O.sub.2 and Cl.sub.2 for the bleaching purpose, thereby closing the cycle of the process.

An improved continuous process for production of cellulose from glass-like feedstock, which includes: (i) cooking of comminuted grass-like feedstock in white liquor which contains 0.5-2.0% w/w NaOH and 0.5-25.0% w/w NaCl at 95-100? C.; (ii) bleaching process of the brown cellulose in the white liquor of the same composition with oxygen (O.sub.2) and chlorine (Cl.sub.2) at 70-100? C., yielding bleached cellulose pulp; where, (iii) lignin and other side-products are separated by continuous electrolysis, where the white liquor is regenerated, together with O.sub.2 and Cl.sub.2 for the bleaching purpose, thereby closing the cycle of the process.

The invention relates to a process for isolation of hemicelluloses from biomass pulping process waters or spent liquors with removal of suspended solids, concentration of the product and purification of the product by removal of inorganic salts and low molecular weight substances. It is characterized in that the hemicellulose isolation process conditions at several separation/purification stages are adjusted separately by e.g. pH adjustment. The invention further relates to a plant for carrying out the process. With such process and plant it is possible to recover most of the suspended solids, especially xylan and other hemicelluloses.

The invention relates to a process for isolation of hemicelluloses from biomass pulping process waters or spent liquors with removal of suspended solids, concentration of the product and purification of the product by removal of inorganic salts and low molecular weight substances. It is characterized in that the hemicellulose isolation process conditions at several separation/purification stages are adjusted separately by e.g. pH adjustment. The invention further relates to a plant for carrying out the process. With such process and plant it is possible to recover most of the suspended solids, especially xylan and other hemicelluloses.

A system (100) for producing aqueous sulphuric acid. The system (100) comprises a first heat exchanger (410) configured to cool water and/or aqueous sulphuric for producing cooled water and/or cooled aqueous sulphuric acid; a pre-cooling unit (200) configured to pre-cool some gas containing sulphur trioxide, the pre-cooling unit (200) comprising an inlet or inlets (212, 214) for receiving [i] the gas containing sulphur trioxide and [ii] the cooled water and/or the cooled aqueous sulphuric acid, an outlet (216) for letting out aqueous sulphuric acid and the gas containing sulphur trioxide, and a first nozzle (220) for spraying the cooled water and/or the cooled aqueous sulphuric acid onto the gas containing sulphur trioxide to cool the gas containing sulphur trioxide. The system further comprises a condensation tower (300) comprising a first inlet (302) for receiving the cooled gas containing sulphur trioxide and aqueous sulphuric acid from the pre-cooling unit (200) and means (320) for circulating the aqueous sulphuric acid within the

An object of present invention is to provide a method for easily extracting and efficiently recovering xylan from wood. A xylan-containing material is produced by a method comprising steps of: (a) adding an acid and/or carbon dioxide to a black liquor discharged during a soda cooking step of wood chips including hardwood chips to adjust the pH of the black liquor to be in the range of 1 to 9, thereby giving a suspension; (b) dehydrating and washing an insoluble matter generated in the suspension to separately collect the insoluble matter; and (c) adding an organic solvent to the insoluble matter obtained at the step (b) to give a suspension, and separately collecting a xylan-containing material made of the insoluble matter present in the suspension by solid/liquid separation.

An object of present invention is to provide a method for easily extracting and efficiently recovering xylan from wood. A xylan-containing material is produced by a method comprising steps of: (a) adding an acid and/or carbon dioxide to a black liquor discharged during a soda cooking step of wood chips including hardwood chips to adjust the pH of the black liquor to be in the range of 1 to 9, thereby giving a suspension; (b) dehydrating and washing an insoluble matter generated in the suspension to separately collect the insoluble matter; and (c) adding an organic solvent to the insoluble matter obtained at the step (b) to give a suspension, and separately collecting a xylan-containing material made of the insoluble matter present in the suspension by solid/liquid separation.

There is described a process for the recovering of inorganic chemicals of pulp and paper making processes (IC) and the production of biochemicals from black liquor (BL) using microwaves (MW) comprising: (a) filtration of BL to produce filtered BL, in a media, (b) drying of said filtered BL with MW in said media to produce dried BL, (c) pyrolysis of said dried BL with MW in said media to produce bio-oil, biogas, and solid residue, (d) recovering of said bio-oil, and (e) recovering of IC and biocarbon from said solid residue. The disclosed process does not require chemical additives compared to processes rely on precipitation of lignin to recover said IC. The disclosed process supports efficient, direct, and long-lasting reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and local air pollutants resulting from the current processes rely on burning BL in recovery boilers to recover said IC.

Described herein is a method for processing straw into an intermediate straw product. The method comprises: (a) treating straw with an alkaline solution having a p H of between about 10 and about 14, at a temperature of between about 20 C. and about 80 C., for a period of between about 6 hours and about 30 hours; (b) separating excess alkaline solution and the treated straw from each other; and (c) maintaining the treated straw in an anaerobic environment at a temperature of between about 30 C. and about 45 C., for a period of between about 6 hours and about 30 hours to produce an intermediate straw product. Also described is an intermediate product produced by the method; a method for extracting lignin from straw; lignin thereby produced; a method for extracting cellulose fibers from straw to produce paper pulp; cellulose fibers and paper pulp thereby produced; a method for producing a paper pulp product or a paper product; a product thereby produced; and a container and apparatus for processing straw according to the methods described.