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Production of cellulose nanofibrils from bleached eucalyptus fibers by hyperthermostable endoglucanase treatment and subsequent microfluidization

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Abstract

A GH5 hyperthermostable endoglucanase from the archaeon Pyrococcus horikoshii (Ph-GH5) and a commercial endoglucanase FR were used to treat bleached eucalyptus pulp (BEP) fibers to produce cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) through subsequent microfluidization. Enzymatic treatments facilitated CNF production due to the reduced degree of polymerization (DP) of the fibers. SEM imaging indicated that FR reduced fiber DP drastically and resulted in much shorter fibers than with Ph-GH5, even at very low dosages (1 mg protein/g fiber) of FR treatment compared with a high dosage (10 mg protein/g fiber) of Ph-GH5. The fibers treated with FR were much more uniform in length perhaps due to the presence of exoglucanase and beta-glucosidase saccharifying short microfibers into glucose. TEM imaging indicated that Ph-GH5 produced longer and entangled CNFs than FR with the same number of microfluidization passes. However, the CNF diameters were approximately the same for all CNFs from enzyme-treated fibers using both endoglucanases at two dosages (1 or 10 mg protein/g fiber). CNFs produced from BEP fibers without enzymatic treatment showed larger diameters than those with enzymatic treatment.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the financial supports by a USDA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Competitive Grant (No. 2011-67009-20056), Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 31070512 and 31370571). The funding from these programs made the visiting appointment of Wang at the USDA Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) possible. We also acknowledge Thomas Kuster of the Analytical Chemistry and Microscopy Lab of FPL for SEM imaging and Debra Sherman of DS imaging LLC, West Lafayette, IN, for TEM imaging.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab of Pulp and Paper Science and Technology, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, 210037, China

    Wangxia Wang & Yongcan Jin

  2. Forest Products Laboratory, USDA Forest Service, Madison, WI, 53726, USA

    Wangxia Wang, Michael D. Mozuch, Ronald C. Sabo, Phil Kersten & J. Y. Zhu

Authors
  1. Wangxia Wang
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  2. Michael D. Mozuch
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  3. Ronald C. Sabo
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  4. Phil Kersten
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  5. J. Y. Zhu
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  6. Yongcan Jin
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Phil Kersten or J. Y. Zhu.

Additional information

This work was conducted on official government time of Zhu, Kersten, Mozuch, and Sabo while Wang was a visiting student at the US Forest Service, Forest Products Lab.

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Wang, W., Mozuch, M.D., Sabo, R.C. et al. Production of cellulose nanofibrils from bleached eucalyptus fibers by hyperthermostable endoglucanase treatment and subsequent microfluidization. Cellulose 22, 351–361 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-014-0465-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-014-0465-2

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