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Enhancing cellulose nanofibrillation of eucalyptus Kraft pulp by combining enzymatic and mechanical pretreatments

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Abstract

Nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) extracted from biomass has potential applications in material science and biomedical engineering. In this study, NFC was obtained from bleached eucalyptus Kraft pulp (BEKP) using two commercial enzyme cocktails with cellulolytic and hemicellulolytic activities and non-catalytic protein (swollenin), followed by ultrasonication. This work represents an initial study of the implementation of non-catalytic proteins along with enzymes to extract NFC from biomass. Enzymatic pretreatment was performed to partially remove hemicellulose while enhancing cellulose accessibility for NFC extraction. Cellulase pretreatment with xylanase and swollenin supplementation increased cellulose accessibility and fiber swelling due to extensive hemicellulose removal (> 80%) and fiber morphology changes. Subsequent ultrasonication was performed for cellulose nanofibrillation resulting in high NFC yields (61–97%), while keeping NFC properties almost unchanged. Through this process, cellulose nanofibers with diameters ranging from 3 nm to 10 nm were effectively isolated from BEKP, which allows to produce high quality NFC for further applications.

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Acknowledgments

Florencia Cebreiros thanks the CAP-UdelaR and ANII from Uruguay for the PhD scholarship and student mobility award (MOV_IDRC_2018_1_151791), respectively. The authors would like to thank UPM Fray Bentos (Uruguay) for providing the raw material, Novozymes (Davis, CA) for providing the enzymes, and VTT Technical Research Center (Finland) for providing the swollenin used in this work. Financial support was provided by Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación (ANII_FMV_1_2019_1_156233, Uruguay).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Bioingeniería, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de la República, Julio Herrera y Reissig 565, CP, 11300, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Florencia Cebreiros & Claudia Lareo

  2. Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science, University of British Columbia, 517-6350 Stores Road, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada

    Santiago Seiler

  3. Forest Products Biotechnology/Bioenergy Group, Department of Wood Science, Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, 2424 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada

    Sai Swaroop Dalli & Jack Saddler

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  1. Florencia Cebreiros
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  2. Santiago Seiler
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Correspondence to Claudia Lareo.

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Cebreiros, F., Seiler, S., Dalli, S.S. et al. Enhancing cellulose nanofibrillation of eucalyptus Kraft pulp by combining enzymatic and mechanical pretreatments. Cellulose 28, 189–206 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-020-03531-w

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