High yield chemical pulping and bleaching process

Abstract

A method of producing high yield chemical cellulosic pulp includes: (a) chemically pulping wood chips to separate lignin and liberate cellulosic fibers from the wood chips to generate a cellulosic pulp; (b) washing and screening the pulp of step (a); (c) pre-treating the washed pulp with oxygen; (d) optionally washing the treated pulp of step (c); (e) bleaching the pre-treated pulp in an extended duration oxidative bleaching stage; (f) optionally washing the bleached pulp of step (e); and (g) optionally further oxidatively or reductively bleaching the bleached pulp in a shorter duration bleaching stage, wherein the bleached pulp is produced at a yield of greater than 60% based on the weight of the pulped wood chips (dry basis).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.