Continuous digestion of chip blends containing a western red cedar chip furnish

A continuous process for delignifying lignocellulosic material,

• the process comprising:
• feeding a lignocellulosic blend comprising a Thuja plicata chip furnish and a second lignocellulosic material that is a Callitropsis nootkatensis chip furnish into an aqueous alkaline pulping solution at a feed end of a digester, to produce a lignocellulosic mass, wherein the Truja plicata chip furnish comprises at least 50% of the blend by oven dry weight, wherein the second lignocellulosic material is provided in a proportion that increases the density of the mass so that the mass sinks in the pulping solution so as to move the mass through the digester to produce a cellulosic pulp under conditions having an H-Factor of 1500 or greater;
• and
• recovering the cellulosic pulp at a recovery end of the digester,
• wherein the cellulosic pulp may be subsequently bleached to produce a bleached pulp having:
• a. a post-bleaching kappa of 5 or less;
• b. a yield of 38% or more;
• c. an average length weighted fiber length of 2.2 mm or less;
• d. a coarseness of 0.16 mg/m or less;
• e. a freeness of 610 mL or greater;
• f. a tensile strength of 8.0 m or more at 500 Csf;
• and
• g. a porosity of 60 Gurley sec. or less at 500 Csf.