Primary fiber preparation

The systems for primary fiber preparation are less complex than a recovered paper processing system due to the much lower level of impurities and contamination in virgin fiber pulps. Depending on the paper type produced and the availability of the various fiber types, a paper machine, or especially a multi-layer board machine, may be fed by several different fiber qualities, each of them treated in separate lines with different process steps. 

The predominant cellulose ester fiber is cellulose acetate, a partially acetylated cellulose, also called acetate or secondary acetate. It is widely used in textiles because of its attractive economics, bright color, styling versatiUty, and other favorable aesthetic properties. However, its largest commercial appHcation is as the fibrous material in cigarette filters, where its smoke removal properties and contribution to taste make it the standard for the cigarette industry. Cellulose triacetate fiber, also known as primary cellulose acetate, is an almost completely acetylated cellulose. Although it has fiber properties that are different, and in many ways better than cellulose acetate, it is of lower commercial significance primarily because of environmental considerations in fiber preparation. 

The purpose of repulping or slushing is to break down the dried primary fiber pulp or recovered paper into individual fibers or, at least, to form a suspension which can be pumped. In the latter case the remaining flakes have to be broken down in subsequent deflaking machinery. Repulping is needed not only at the beginning of the stock preparation system but also for the wet or dry broke from the paper machine. 

Nonwoven technologies that employ machinery and processing principles traditionally used to manufacture textile, paper, or extmded materials, when viewed collectively, form what may be termed the primary or basic nonwoven fabric manufacturing systems. These systems are or can be continuous processes. Common to each of these systems are four sequential phases fiber selection and preparation, web formation, bonding, and finishing. 

Other fibers blended with polyesters in numerous blended fabrics requke alternative methods of preparation. Generally, the scouring and bleaching procedures used for these blends are those employed for the primary component of the blended fiber or for the component that most influences aesthetic appearance. 

Animal cell cultures that are initiated from cells removed directly from the animal are called primary cultures (Figure 2). Primary cultures include both explant cultures (i.e., cultures initiated from small pieces of intact tissue), as well as cultures initiated from preparations of individual or dispersed cells (obtained from intact tissue by mechanical or proteolytic dismption). Nerve fiber explant cultures in blood plasma were among the earliest types of tissue cultures (Harrison, 1907). Cells grow out from such tissue explants and form a single layer of cells completely filling the tissue culture vessel surface. Such cell cultures are called confluent monolayers. Confluent monolayers can then be treated with trypsin, so as to remove the individual cells from the culture vessel surface. The resulting cell suspension is then transferred into other culture containers, so that more viable monolayer... 

Modem civilization consumes vast quantities of organic compounds. Coal, petroleum, and natural gas are primary sources of carbon compounds for use in production of energy and as starting materials for the preparation of plastics, synthetic fibers, dyes, agricultural chemicals, pesticides, fertilizers, detergents, rubbers and other elastomers, paints and other surface coatings, medicines and drugs, perfumes and flavors, antioxidants and other preservatives, as well as asphalts, lubricants, and solvents that are derived from petroleum. 

Block copolymers may also be made by condensation polymerization. Elastomer fibers are produced in a three-step operation. A primary block of a polyether or polyester of a molecular weight of 1000-3000 is prepared, capped with an aromatic diisocyanate, and then expanded with a diamine or dihydroxy compound to a multiblock copolymer of a molecular weight of 20,000. The oxidative coupling of 2,6-disubstituted phenols to PPO is also a condensation polymerization. G. D. Cooper and coworkers report the manufacture of a block copolymer of 2,6-dimethyl-phenol with 2,6-diphenylphenol. In the first step, a homopolymer of diphenylphenol is preformed by copper-amine catalyst oxidation. In the second step, oxidation of dimethylphenol in the presence of the first polymer yields the block copolymer. 

Nanomaterials can be in the form of fibers (one-dimensional), thin films (two-dimensional), or particles (three-dimensional). A nanomaterial is any material that has at least one of its dimensions in the size range 1 to 100 nm (Figure 6.1). Many physical and chemical properties are determined by the very large surface area/volume ratio associated with such ultrasmall particles. There are two major categories into which all nanomaterial preparative techniques can be grouped the physical, or top-down, approach and the chemical, or bottom-up, approach. In this chapter, our primary focus is on chemical synthesis. Nevertheless, we discuss the physical methods briefly, as they have received a great deal more interest in the industrial sector because of their promise to produce large volumes of nanostructured solids. 

Many experiments have demonstrated the capacity of cellulases and of mixtures of cellulases, pectinases, and hemicellulases to break down or to soften plant cell walls. For human diets this would be beneficial in preparing infant or geriatric foods where reduced fiber content is desired. Recently treatment of wheat bran was found to increase the in vitro protein digestibility by 35% (63) and to increase weight gain of rats fed a bran-containing ration. The aleurone cell wall was the primary substrate for these enzymes. 

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