Bleached chemi-thermomechanical pulp (BCTMP) is an energy-efficient and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional chemical pulps, offering a higher yield from raw wood fibers and reduced chemical usage. Additionally, BCTMP provides cost advantages by requiring less material to produce the same volume of paper. This study explores the potential of using BCTMP for tissue paper manufacturing with lower energy and resource consumption while ensuring an optimal balance of absorbency capacity and strength [1, 2]. To achieve this, a combination of stratified paper forming and pulp fractionation was explored to enhance the balance between water absorbency and dry strength. The selected fractionation approach enabled the separation of fines (detached fiber segments or lamellae fragments), stiff low-fibrillated fibers (A fraction) and flexible fibrillated fibers (B fractions). Following the characterization of the morphological properties of each fiber fraction, 20 g/m² model papers were produced using a dynamic handsheet former. A three-layer paper composed of A/B1+fines/B2 was fabricated through stratification [2]. The stratified paper exhibited a 30% increase in absorbency capacity for the same breaking stress-to-density ratio compared with a monolayer of BCTMP. To further improve the balance of properties, the fines fraction was surface-quaternized through a reaction with glycidyl-trimethylammonium chloride [3] to enhance its hydrophilicity and bonding potential before being reintroduced into the paper structure. Incorporating surface-quaternized fines into the stratified structure significantly improved the breaking stress-to-density ratio by 60%, demonstrating a notable enhancement in the balance of properties for producing high-performance BCTMP-based tissue paper. It is believed that this improvement happens because surface-quaternized fines act as bonding bridges between lignin-rich fibers, helping to overcome the weak bonding between BCTMP fibers due to their low flexibility and high lignin content.