The manufacture of Tylose® is a complex process. The raw material used for the production of cellulose ethers is high-purity cellulose, which is obtained from cotton linters or wood and is water-insoluble. To make it accessible to a chemical reaction, the cellulose is first finely ground (pulp grinding) and then reacted with sodium hydroxide solution to form the so-called alkali cellulose. Depending on the required type of cellulose ether, the swollen alkali cellulose is etherified with different agents, thus creating water-soluble cellulose ethers. Unreacted etherification agents are recycled.
Please see more details about the chemical reactions with cellulose here.
During the reaction of alkali cellulose with etherification agents and during the subsequent processing stages, sodium chloride as well as further by-products are formed, which are removed in a series of complex extraction steps. During the entire process, the cellulose ether is in the form of a suspended solid state material (and thus not in solution). This is achieved by the choice of appropriate solvents as well as by an optimized temperature control during the whole process. The dried cellulose ethers are ground to granulate or powder grade materials and, depending on the application, can be finally modified with different additives.
Therefore, the cellulose ethers produced by SE Tylose differ in
Please see here for more information about the production procedure (schematic).
