Sulfonated aspen pulps. I: High yield pulps by steam explosion

High yield pulps have been prepared in the presence of a sulfonation reagent (Na 2 SO 3 ) both under conventional alkali (CTMP, CMP pulps) and steam explosion (SE pulps) conditions. Pulps were evaluated both in terms of their chemical and physical properties as of their structure. When compared to conventional CMP and CTMP ones, SE pulps lead to higher fiber bonding ability resulting in an improved paper strength.