Production of dissolving grade pulps from non-wood paper grade pulps using enzymatic and chemical pre-treatments for the viscose process

• Cellulose is the most abundant biorenewable material, constitutes an important polymer since it is used as raw material for several products, e.g.  Paper and board but also cellulose-based products which have many important applications in the pharmaceutical, textile, food and paint industries.  A raw material with high cellulose content and low content of hemicelluloses, residual lignin, extractives and minerals is required for the prodn. of these products, e.g.  Cotton and dissolving grade pulp are used.  However, the high cost prodn. of dissolving grade pulps has aroused the possibility of upgrading paper grade pulps into dissolving pulps by selective removal of hemicelluloses and subsequent activation of the pulps.  This study reports the feasibility to produce dissolving grade pulps from different pulps, i.e.  Non-wood paper grade pulps and conventional hardwood kraft pulps, employing enzymic and chem. pretreatments.  A monocomponent endoglucanase and a xylanase followed by alk. extn. were tested in order to increase the accessibility and reactivity of the cellulose pulp and decrease the hemicellulose content, resp.  An optimization of these treatments in terms of enzyme dosage, incubation time and a possible combination of them was investigated.  The treatment effects on reactivity according to Fock's method, viscosity, hemicellulose content and mol. wt. distribution, using size exclusion chromatog. (SEC), were analyzed.  The characterization of cellulose structure after the enzymic and chem. treatments was investigated by different techniques.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Kemiteknik -- Polymerteknologi (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Chemical Engineering -- Polymer Technologies (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Kemi -- Polymerkemi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Chemical Sciences -- Polymer Chemistry (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

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