Kraft pulping, in spite of its wide practice, suffers from some serious disadvantages, such as the odour problems, lower pulp yield and high investment requirements. To overcome these difficulties considerable efforts have already been made. In this paper, feasibilities of alternative methods to kraft pulping have been examined and discussed.

A kraft mill, even by utilizing the best available technology, cannot be made completely odour-free. However, there are several sulphide-free and non-sulphur pulping methods. Among these, sodaanthraquinone (AQ) pulping process seems to be promissing.

The most practised chemical to-day is the kraft process. 95% of the present production of chemical 74 Pulp yield can be increased by using polysulphide, H2S or AQ in the cook. The first two are used exclusively in kfraft cooking, and so the odour problem cannot be overcome. AQ on the other hand, is also suitable in a sulphur-free cook which eliminates the odour problem of the pulp mill. Soda-AQ pulping is more suitable with hardwoods.

There is an ample opportunity of reducing the investment cost in a kraft mill by replacing the conventional recovery furnace with alternative devices now under development or by eliminating some of the steps in the recovery cycle. There are also possibilities of eliminating the causticizing step and the lime kiln in any alkaline pulping process by replacing NaOH with disodium borate in cooking or by introduction of TiO₂, Fe₂O or ilmenite (FcO. TiO₂) in the recovery stage.