BACKGROUND: Eucalyptus globulus is an important wood source for paper production and, in the last few years, great efforts have been made to assess its chemical specificities and improve the kraft pulping efficiency. Despite the existence of several works concerning mostly the kinetics of E. globulus kraft pulping there is a lack of systematic studies on the initial phase of pulping as well as on the impact of effective alkali (EA) charge profiling on the kraft pulping performance of this species. The aim of the present work is to assess the effect of initial effective alkali and sulfide charges on the lignin and carbohydrates removal on the impregnation phase and to investigate the effect of EA splitting charge on the whole E. globulus pulping process efficiency. RESULTS: When the EA charge at impregnation phase increases, the amount of dissolved wood increases until it reaches a constant value of about 20%. Maximum polysaccharide removal at impregnation phase was about 10% of total wood weight. Glucose removal during impregnation was attributed to the degradation and/or dissolution of E. globulus glucans. For EA charges at impregnation phase higher than similar to 15%, xylan retention on wood was roughly constant. Despite the differences found at impregnation phase. on the amount of dissolved wood and lignin removal, it was demonstrated that these differences are almost completely attenuated until the end of the kraft pulping process. CONCLUSION: In the case of E. globulus, for a constant effective alkali charge, alkali profiling does not affect the whole kraft pulping performance. (C) 2007 Society of Chemical Industry.