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Comparative evaluation of the action of two different endoglucanases. Part I: On a fully bleached, commercial acid sulfite dissolving pulp

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Abstract

A fully bleached commercial acid dissolving pulp was treated with two endoglucanases, one obtained from Paenibacillus barcinonensis (B) and the other one produced from Cerrena unicolor (F) with the intention to improve cellulose reactivity and processability in the viscose process. B cellulase was tested under 120 U/g oven dry pulp (odp) and the F cellulase under two conditions, 12 and 60 U/g odp. In addition, a purification stage, consisting in a cold caustic extraction (CCE) of 9 % w/v NaOH, was applied before or after the enzymatic treatment in order to reduce the amount of hemicellulose and improve the action of enzymes. The treated pulps were evaluated in terms of brightness, viscosity, water retention value, fibre morphology, carbohydrate composition, Fock solubility and NMR. In general, results revealed that both endoglucanases improved cellulose reactivity, albeit in a different way; thus, B caused no scissions in the cellulose chain and no significant reduction in fibre length, whereas F strongly decreased viscosity, shortened fibre length and increased considerably the amount of fines. The result of applying two different doses of F cellulase was reflected on Fock solubility and fibre morphology. F60 treatment was found to give the highest value of Fock solubility and the biggest reduction of fibre length. The effect of both endoglucanases on Fock solubility was increased by introducing an earlier CCE stage. Finally, a CCE_B120 pulp with 3 % of hemicellulose and 69 % of Fock solubility was obtained.

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Abbreviations

B120:

B endoglucanase at 120 U/g

B120_CCE:

B endoglucanase at 120 U/g + cold caustic extraction

CCE:

Cold caustic extraction

CCE_B120:

Cold caustic extraction + B endoglucanase at 120 U/g

CCE_F12:

Cold caustic extraction + F endoglucanase at 12 U/g

CS:

Chain scission

DP:

Degree of polymerization

EG:

Endoglucanase

F60:

F endoglucanase at 60 U/g

F12:

F endoglucanase at 12 U/g

K:

Control treatment

K_CCE:

Control treatment + cold caustic extraction

PO:

Hydrogen peroxide reinforced with pressurized oxygen

TCF:

Totally chlorine free

n.d.:

Not determined

odp:

Oven dried pulp

WRV:

Water retention value

13C-CP/MAS NMR:

Solid state cross polarization/magic angle spinning carbon 13 nucelar magnetic resonance

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the "Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad" of Spain for their support in this work under the projects BIOSURFACEL CTQ2012-34109 (funding also from the "Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional FEDER”) and BIOPAPμFLUID CTQ2013-48995-C2-1-R. The authors are grateful to the consolidated group with the Universitat de Barcelona (UB) AGAUR 2014 SGR 534. The authors would like to thank DÖMSJO (Sweden) for providing the starting pulp, Fungal Bioproducts (Spain) for kindly supplying the F cellulase and the Department of Microbiology (University of Barcelona, Spain) for warmly providing the B cellulase.  

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CELBIOTECH_Paper Engineering Research Group, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, BarcelonaTech, 08222, Terrassa, Spain

    Elisabet Quintana, Cristina Valls, Teresa Vidal & M. Blanca Roncero

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  1. Elisabet Quintana
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  2. Cristina Valls
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  3. Teresa Vidal
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  4. M. Blanca Roncero
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Correspondence to Elisabet Quintana or M. Blanca Roncero.

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Quintana, E., Valls, C., Vidal, T. et al. Comparative evaluation of the action of two different endoglucanases. Part I: On a fully bleached, commercial acid sulfite dissolving pulp. Cellulose 22, 2067–2079 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-015-0623-1

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