Methods for Increasing Retention and Drainage in Papermaking Processes

• US 20140262090A1
• Filed: 03/10/2014
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Ecolab USA Incorporated (Ecolab, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Ecolab USA Incorporated (Ecolab, Inc.)
• Inventors: Brotherson, Brett, Reed, Peter E., Li, Xiaojin Harry, Andrews, William J., Wei, Mingli
• Application Number:
  US14/202,028
• Publication Number:
  US 20140262090A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 162/164.6
• CPC Class Codes: C08F 20/56 Acrylamide; Methacrylamide
• CPC Class Codes: C08F 2810/10 including a reactive processing step which leads, inter alia, to morphological and/or rheological modifications, e.g. visbreaking
• CPC Class Codes: C08F 8/12 Hydrolysis
• CPC Class Codes: C08F 8/48 Isomerisation; Cyclisation
• CPC Class Codes: D21H 17/375 Poly(meth)acrylamide
• CPC Class Codes: D21H 17/40 unsaturated
• CPC Class Codes: D21H 17/45 Nitrogen-containing groups
• CPC Class Codes: D21H 17/455 comprising tertiary amine or being at least partially quaternised
• CPC Class Codes: D21H 21/10 Retention agents or drainage improvers

Abstract

Disclosed herein are methods of increasing retention and drainage in papermaking processes using high molecular-weight, water-soluble polymers.

Claims

1. A method for improving retention and drainage in a papermaking process, comprising:

providing a first composition comprising a water-soluble polymer having hydrolyzable cross-linked monomer units, the polymer comprising about 1 mol % to about 100 mol % acrylamide monomers;

activating the composition to hydrolyze the cross-linked monomer units to provide an activated polymer composition, wherein the activated polymer composition has a viscosity that is greater than the aqueous composition; and

adding the activated polymer composition to the papermaking process.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the hydrolyzable cross-linked monomer units are ionically cross-linked via an ionic interaction between two monomer units.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the water-soluble polymer comprises from about 1 mol % to about 25 mol % ionically cross-linked monomer units.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the water-soluble polymer comprises at least one monomer unit having the following formula (I):

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the monomer unit of formula (I) is derived from a monomer selected from the group consisting of N,N-dimethylaminoethyl acrylate methyl chloride quaternary salt, N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate methyl chloride quaternary salt, N,N-dimethylaminopropyl acrylamide methyl chloride quaternary salt, and N,N-dimethylaminopropyl methacrylamide methyl chloride quaternary salt.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the water-soluble polymer further comprises at least one anionic monomer unit derived from a monomer selected from the group consisting of an acrylic acid salt, a methacrylic acid salt, a 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid salt and a styrene sulfonic acid salt.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the hydrolyzable cross-linked monomer units are covalently cross-linked.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the covalently cross-linked monomer units have the following formula (II):

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the covalently cross-linked monomer units have the following formula (IIIa):

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the covalently cross-linked monomer units have the following formula (IIb):

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the water-soluble polymer comprises about 0.1 ppm to about 20000 ppm covalently cross-linked monomer units.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the water-soluble polymer comprises about 0.1 ppm to about 100 ppm covalently cross-linked monomer units.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the aqueous composition comprises about 100 ppm to about 10000 ppm of the water-soluble polymer.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the aqueous composition further comprises an additional retention aid, a filler, an optical brightening agent, a dye, a sizing agent, cationic starch, a fixative, a detackifier, a dispersant, a wet or dry strength additive, or any combination thereof.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein prior to activation, the first composition has a viscosity of about 0 cPs to about 100 cPs.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein after activation, the activated polymer composition has a viscosity of about 1 cPs to about 5000 cPs.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the activating step comprises heating the first composition, increasing the ionic strength of the first composition, or increasing the pH of the first composition.

18. The method of claim 1, comprising adding the activated polymer composition to a wet end of a papermaking machine.

19. The method of claim 1, comprising adding the activated polymer composition to a pulp slurry.