Deinking of HP digital commercial prints: Effect of chemicals and their loadings on deinkability

Abstract

Here we show that the effect of chemicals and their specific loadings play a dominant role on the outcome of a deinking process. More specifically, we demonstrate that good deinkability of HP digital commercial prints (i.e. liquid-electrophotographic (LEP), dry-EP and inkjet (IJ) prints) can be achieved with our highly efficient neutral deinking chemistry (coded HPE6S4), which is based on readily available non-proprietary chemicals. We found a direct correlation of the chemical effects to the ink-particle speck contamination and its particle-size distribution. Our excellent results compared favorably to that obtained with the traditional deinking chemistry. Our approach can be readily scalable for adaption in the paper recycling mills.