Abstract
Dissolving pulps are used to manufacture various
cellulose derived products through cellulose dissolution.
Solubility of cellulose pulp has been claimed to be
strongly dependent on the porosity development, the
degree of polymerisation and the pulp viscosity. The
removal of external cell walls has been proposed to have
a key role in the pulp solubility. In this paper, the
effect of the outermost surface layers on the solubility
of a dissolving grade pulp was studied. Furthermore the
effect of mechanical peeling and combined mechanical and
enzymatic treatment on pulp solubility was compared.
Based on the results combined mechanical and enzymatic
treatment efficiently opens up the fibre structure and
has a clear positive effect on the solubility of
dissolving pulp. It seems that long fibre fraction is
less accessible to solvent chemicals than the other pulp
fractions. Mechanical peeling of outer fibre layers does
not improve fibre dissolution to NaOH/ZnO. Thus, it seems
that peeling alone is not a sufficient pre-treatment
prior to dissolution. The results also revealed that the
peeling treatment does not enhance the effects of enzymes
as the studied mechanical treatment does.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 3955-3965 |
| Journal | Cellulose |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2015 |
| MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Keywords
- cellulose dissolution
- dissolving pulp
- enzymatic hydrolysis
- hydomechanical peeling
- porosity
- solute exclusion