Fractionation and concentration of kraft black liquor lignin with ultrafiltration

Kraft black liquor lignin is a biofuel that is separated from the cellulose during kraft pulping. Improved technology and energy integration in paper mills have led to an energy surplus at many mills. It is therefore of great interest to extract the lignin from the pulp mill and sell it as fuel to replace fossil fuel in other furnaces. The fractionation of kraft black liquor with a total dry matter content of about 15 wt% has been studied using ultrafiltration. The flux for three polymeric membranes with different cut-offs was investigated as well as their retention of lignin and other process specific substances. The retention of lignin for the three membranes with cut-offs of 4, 8 and 20 kDa was 80%, 67% and 45%, respectively. The retention of sulphur and sodium was zero for all three membranes. The purity of the final lignin fuel is of importance as the ash content preferably should be as low as possible. The flux and retention during concentration and diafiltration of the black liquor were therefore studied. The diafiltration operation was conducted in batch and semicontinuous mode. The ligain purity was 36% in the original kraft black liquor and 78% after semi-continuous diafiltration.