Tween 80 enhancing cellulase recyclability during activation of dissolving pulp

Abstract

Enhancing cellulase recyclability is a promising approach to reducing the high enzyme cost for activation of dissolving pulp. For this purpose, Tween 80, an amphiphilic surfactant, was employed to facilitate cellulase recovery from fibers. Results indicated that the Cellulase–Tween complex was formed (with a particle size increase of 140%) through a hydrophobic interaction. A much lower maximum binding capacity and affinity (i.e., absorption ability) of cellulase onto fibers (6.03 versus 24.3 mg protein/g cellulose and 7.45 versus 13.8 ml/mg protein) were achieved for the complex in comparison with the control. The recovered cellulase activity was increased up to 65.7% from the control one in five consecutive recycle rounds with Tween 80 addition. As a result, the recovered cellulase efficiency was improved in terms of viscosity and reactivity. Other properties, such as α-cellulose content, alkaline solubility, molecular weight distribution, morphology, and crystalline structure, were all supported by the positive effect of Tween 80 in cellulase recycling.

Keywords:

• Dissolving pulp
• cellulase
• tween 80
• recyclability

Additional information

Funding

The authors are grateful for the financial support of the National Science Foundation of China (31670584, 31971602), Project of Excellent Young Scientist Fund by Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (ZR2018JL015), Outstanding Youth Innovation Team Project of Shandong Provincial University (2019KJC014), Taishan scholar project special funds. This work was also financially supported by the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC). We thank LetPub (www.letpub.com) for its linguistic assistance during the preparation of this manuscript.