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Pulp preparation is the beginning phase of paper manufacture, since it is impossible to produce without first reducing the raw material to the fibrous state. The first basic step in pulp preparation is pulping. For instance, this consists of cooking the raw lignocellulosic material, usually wood, in suitable chemicals in a digester under controlled conditions of temperature, pressure, time, and liquor composition, or reducing the raw material to fibrous state by mechanical or semi-mechanical means. The second basic step is pulp purification, whereby the pulp is subjected to bleaching and purifying agents to render the pulp more suitable for its intended use.

Pulping as technologies include: mechanical pulping, thermomechanical pulping, chemi-thermomechanical pulping, chemical pulping, recycled pulping, organosolv pulping and new alternative pulping methods (bio-pulping, steam explosion pulping, etc.).