A Novel Eco-Alkali Chemistry in Newspaper Flotation Deinking

Abstract

This paper presents the study results of performance and efficiency of fresh offsetprinted
Croatian daily newspaper, deinked by means of novel chemistry, named
Eco-alkali. Eco-alkali is naturally gained alkali prepared from domestic by-product
wood fly ash collected after hardwood ignition. Brightness, opacity and effective
residual ink concentration (ERIC) as optical properties were evaluated for the
deinked pulp before and after flotation. Lingering ink particles and their total surface
area were measured by means of image analysis method. Experimental results
are compared to the pulp deinked with worldwide accepted method INGEDE
Method 11, using identical steps through the whole deinking process. The insights
obtained from present work, especially removing particle efficiency results before
flotation, indicated that eco-alkali have potential to be used in flotation deinking
of newspapers.