Reduced peeling losses in Mexican pine, after gamma irradiation

In Centro de Estudios Nucleares UNAM, a wood-chip irradiation method was developed on the hypothesis that gamma irradiation would result in higher Kraft pulp yields. The effects of irradiation on the susceptibility of wood hemicellulose to alkaline peeling degradation were investigated by peeling loss test. Maximum pulp yields were obtained at 0.025 Mrad for irradiated air-dried wood meal, and at 0.012 Mrad for saturated humidity wood meal