Investigation on the effect of endoglucanase enzyme treatment time and refining to improve OCC pulp properties

The present study analyzed the effect of different enzymatic treatment times using endoglucanase and refining levels to improve the properties of OCC pulp. The OCC pulps were treated by endoglucanase enzyme at a constant dosage of 1u (on o. d. pulp) at different reaction times (0. 5، 1، 1. 5 and 2 hours) under constant process conditions. Based on the results، enzymatic treatment of OCC pulp at different time levels improved the physical and mechanical properties، compared with the control pulp، and the highest improvement level was observed at 0. 5 hour reaction time. Longer enzymatic reaction time (up to 2 hours) led to a significant decrease in the physical and mechanical properties of the pulp. Evaluation of different of enzymatic treatment times and different refining levels indicated that the papers produced from endoglucanse pre-treated pulp (for 0. 5 hour treatment time) showed better quality at different refining levels. However، increasing enzymatic treatment times up to 2 hours showed severe decrease both the physical and mechanical properties at higher refining levels. In general، refining enzyme pre-treated pulp and also the control pulp resulted in a higher strength property of the paper.