Fort James Corporation

David J DiPietro

Terry P Witkowski

Henry Chou

Hazen Charles Thomas

Andrew C Palm

Robert J Clausing

Stephanie Keen

A method of processing papermaking fiber includes characterizing the initial color of the pulp and the color of the pulp after treatment with a phloroglucinol stain. The color response of the pulp to the stain has been found to be a better indicator of processing needs for secondary pulps in particular and in any event is selective for untreated groundwood as opposed to conventional groundwood identification methods. The color difference is used to target a suitable product for the pulp, to aid in bleaching/deinking strategy or to enable optimization of fiber blending for particular products. In a preferred embodiment the process includes determining changes in CIE L*, a*, b* and brightness values before and after staining of the pulp.

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Appleton, WI, United States of America

David J DiPietro