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A new approach to improve dissolving pulp properties: spraying cellulase on rewetted pulp at a high fiber consistency

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Abstract

Cellulase treatment is a promising technology that will increase the reactivity of a prehydrolysis kraft (PHK) dissolving pulp. In this study, a cellulase solution was sprayed onto rewetted pulp at a very high consistency (about 60%) to increase its Fock reactivity with high efficiency and low cost. This novel and facile approach is based on favorable cellulose adsorption onto pulp fibers and high cellulose concentration at the reaction sites. Consequently, the enzymatic reactions towards cellulose fibers are more effective, thus a higher enzymatic performance in comparison with the conventional process. With the cellulase spraying technique under the conditions of 60% fiber consistency and 1.5 mg/g cellulase dosage at 12 h, the Fock reactivity of a PHK dissolving pulp increased from 51.22 to 82.64% with acceptable viscosity (469 mL/g). Herein, the proposed cellulase spraying technology is flexible and readily implementable in practice.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31700520), the National key research and development plan (Grant No. 2017YFB0307900), the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province (Grant No. 2018J05040), the Distinguished Young Scholars of Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University (No. xjq201729) and the Foundation of Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Science and Technology of Ministry of Education/Shandong Province of China (No. KF201625).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Material Engineering, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, 350002, China

    Jianguo Li, Shaokai Zhang, Kaixin Huang, Xinhua Ouyang, Qinghong Zheng, Liulian Huang, Lihui Chen & Yonghao Ni

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Limerick Pulp and Paper Centre, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, E3B 5A3, Canada

    Jianguo Li, Shaokai Zhang, Hailong Li, Linqiang Zheng & Yonghao Ni

  3. Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Science and Technology of Ministry of Education/Shandong Province, Qilu University of Technology, Jinan, 250353, China

    Jianguo Li

  4. Tianjin Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin, 300457, China

    Hailong Li

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  1. Jianguo Li
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  2. Shaokai Zhang
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  3. Hailong Li
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  4. Kaixin Huang
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  5. Linqiang Zheng
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  6. Xinhua Ouyang
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  7. Qinghong Zheng
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  8. Liulian Huang
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  9. Lihui Chen
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  10. Yonghao Ni
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Correspondence to Lihui Chen or Yonghao Ni.

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Li, J., Zhang, S., Li, H. et al. A new approach to improve dissolving pulp properties: spraying cellulase on rewetted pulp at a high fiber consistency. Cellulose 25, 6989–7002 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-018-2063-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-018-2063-1

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