Two stages of treatments for upgrading bleached softwood paper grade pulp to dissolving pulp for viscose production

To convert bleached softwood paper grade pulp into dissolving pulp for viscose application, two stages of treatments consisting of enzymatic treatment and alkaline peroxide treatment were investigated. It was found that high reactivity (about 80%) of pulp could be achieved by endoglucanases (EG)-rich industrial cellulase treatment, and the alpha-cellulose content as well as the viscosity of enzymatically treated pulp can be further adjusted by the alkaline peroxide treatment with certain dosages of NaOH and H2O2 to finally meet the quality requirements of dissolving pulp. The resulting pulp with 68.7% of reactivity, 92.1% of alpha-cellulose content, and 506.9 mL/g of pulp viscosity could be obtained after the two stages of treatments. The appropriate dosage of EG-rich cellulase was 300 IU/g bone dry pulp in the stage of enzymatic treatment, while the suitable dosages of NaOH and H2O2 were 9 wt% and 1 wt%, respectively, in the stage of alkaline peroxide treatment. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.