Chlorte Reduction in $ClO_2$Prebleaching by the Addition of HClO Scavengers

In chlorine dioxide delignification and bleaching the formation of chlorate is undesirable because it does not react with lignin and is harmful to the environment. Chlorate is mainly formed from the in-situ generated hypochlorus acid which is also the main reason for AOX formation. In previous literature scavengers of hypochlorous acid such as sulfamic aicd, DMSO, and hydrogen peroxide have been added to bleaching stages to reduce AOX formation but less attention has been paid to chlorate reduction. This paper thus focuses on the reduction of chlorate content caused by the following additives, sulfamic acid, DMSO, hydrogen peroxide, and oxalic acid. The results show that only sulfamic acid and DMSO reduce chlorate formation under our chlorine dioxide prebleaching conditions. Results by UV spectroscopy and pH adjustment show that scavengers react with hypochlorous acid much faster than with chlorine. Hydrogen peroxide and oxalic acid react with HClO/$Cl_2$much slower than DMSO and sulfamic acid do. The reason for the ineffectiveness of hydrogen peroxide and oxalic acid is ascribed to their slow reaction rates with HClO compared to that of chlorate formation. The fact that only 30-35% of the chlorate can be reduced by sulfamic acid and DMSO when charged in same mole ratio to chlorine dioxide, suggested that the reaction rate of DMSO and sulfamic acid with hypochlorous aicd are of the same magnitude as that of chlorate formation.