Improving Adsorption Deinking by Identifying the Optimum Balance between Polymer Beads and Deinking Chemistry

Ink removal from recovered paper is a very important process in paper and board recycling. The current deinking processes have made obvious contributions to the use of raw materials for the paper and board industries. In contrast to the flotation deinking process, in which small air bubbles are used to remove ink from the pulp, the novel and more energy-efficient method of adsorption deinking technique depends on the attachment and adsorption of ink particles on small polymer beads. The energy savings of adsorption deinking results from the fact that the process is efficient at greater stock consistencies, thus providing water conservation and savings. The present study was carried out to improve the adsorption deinking method by identifying the optimum balance between the deinking chemistry and the polymer beads. Different types of deinking solutions and polymer beads were used for this study with newsprints and mixture of newsprints and magazines. It was found that EGA 3000 solution and polyethylene terephthalate beads worked well with newspaper pulp.