Abstract
Fibre reactivity is essential for cellulose dissolution and derivatisation and a porous fibre structure is one key determinant for a highly reactive pulp. Mechanical and enzymatic treatments are known to improve fibre reactivity and more recently, the combination of mechano-enzymatic treatment has been shown to synergistically enhance the beneficial effect. The aim of this work was to do a systematic study on the effect of dry matter content during enzymatic modification of fibres and define the conditions that optimally improve fibre porosity. The combined mechano-enzymatic treatments at 15–25 w% consistency had the most pronounced effect on fibre porosity and morphology analysed by solute exclusion technique, nitrogen sorption and scanning electron microscopy. Light microscopy imaging confirmed that the combined mechano-enzymatic treatment at high consistency (> 10 w%) resulted in extensive fibrillation of the treated fibres which was not observed after sole mechanical or enzymatic treatments.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 5311-5322 |
| Journal | Cellulose |
| Volume | 27 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jun 2020 |
| MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Funding
Open access funding provided by Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT). This work was funded by the Academy of Finland Grants Nos. 277791 and 279255 for the project “Development of porosity at high solids loading in the early stages of fibre treatment by cellulose-active enzymes”. In addition, we are grateful for the support by the FinnCERES Materials Bioeconomy Ecosystem (Academy of Finland).
Keywords
- Endoglucanase
- Enzyme
- Fibre modification
- Fibre reactivity
- High consistency
- Porosity