Effect of dehydration mode and rate on hornification of bagasse fiber paper

Abstract

The process of dehydration, drying and rewetting of bagasse fiber during reuse will result in inevitable hornification. By controlling the dehydration mode and rate of the paper forming, the expansion and contraction rate of the fiber can be adjusted, thereby reducing the degree of hornification. When the liquid–solid ratio was 1.22, the rate of moisture removal in the early drying stage was the lowest at 0.986 g/s m², and free water was mainly removed in this stage. The highest values of tensile index and tear index were 60.07 N m/g and 10.28 mN m²/g, respectively, and the lowest degree of fiber hornification was 22.51% at 5 cycles, which was 1.7% lower than that at a liquid–solid ratio of 1.00, indicating that the reduction of the drying rate of the capillary water can alleviate the generation of hornification, which provides a new way to solve the problem of fiber hornification.