High performance man-made cellulosic fibres from recycled newsprint

Herein, we propose a biorefinery concept for the production of man-made cellulosic fibres from waste newsprint using environmentally friendly technologies. Newsprint represents one of the most challenging ligno-cellulose substrates as it comprises mostly virtually unrefined wood pulp. Spinning dopes were prepared with pulps obtained through kraft pulping and alkaline glycerol pulping at varying intensities. The solubility of kraft deinked newsprint pulps in the ionic liquid 1,5-diazabicyclo[4.3.0]non-5-enium acetate ([DBNH]OAc) was not promising and resulted in solutions of poor spinnability. In contrast, dopes prepared from alkaline glycerol pulping showed promising visco-elastic properties and the spun fibres possessed high tensile properties that are comparable to commercial Lyocell fibres made from highly refined dissolving pulp. The structural features of these fibres in terms of degree of orientation, crystallinity and the moisture sorption behaviour were analyzed and are discussed.