defibering

Defibering is the process of breaking down fibrous materials to liberate individual fibers from bundles or from a surrounding matrix. The term is used across several industries, including papermaking, textile recycling, and the processing of fiber-reinforced composites. Defibering can be achieved through mechanical, chemical, enzymatic, or combined treatments, and typically produces a slurry or pulp containing a range of fiber lengths and fines.

Mechanical defibering uses shear, grinding, refining, or high-pressure hydrodynamic forces to separate fibers. Chemical defibering relies on pulping processes that dissolve binding substances such as lignin, with or without subsequent mechanical treatment. Enzymatic pretreatments can weaken bonding between fibers to improve separation. In practice, many operations employ a chemi-mechanical sequence to balance fiber integrity, energy use, and pulp quality.

Applications include production of paper and board from wood or non-wood fibers; recycling of post-consumer textiles and blends by separating constituent fibers; and preparation of fiber slurries from reinforced composites to enable recycling or reprocessing.

Quality metrics commonly include fiber length distribution, fines content, brightness, optical properties, drainage rate, and mechanical strength of resulting materials. Higher energy input generally yields greater defibration but can reduce fiber length and strength.

Environmental and economic considerations involve energy consumption, chemical use and recovery, wastewater or solid residues, and potential for material recovery. Advances aim to reduce energy demand while maintaining fiber quality and enabling recycling of composite materials.

Terminology varies by industry; defibering is sometimes called defibration, defiberization, or fiber separation, depending on context.