Hemicelluloses in industrially produced pre-hydrolysis liquor (PHL) were precipitated with ethanol. These PHL-derived hemicelluloses (PHL-EH) and a commercial, pure birch wood xylan sample (powder form) (BWX) were bleached using chlorine dioxide (D-0 and D-1) and hydrogen peroxide (Ep) in the D(0)EpD(1), sequence, and the chemical compositions, molecular weights and charge densities of the treated samples were assessed. When applied to high-yield pulp (HYP) at 50 mg/g, 26 and 20 mg/g of the bleached PHL-EH and BWX, respectively, were adsorbed without significantly affecting paper properties. These results suggest that semi-bleached hemicelluloses could be used to increase the basis weight of paper products. Furthermore, an integrated process was proposed that converts the kraft-based dissolving pulp production process into a biorefinery unit with dissolving pulp, bleached hemicelluloses and lignin as main products. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.