Patent Application: US-201514656988-A

Abstract:
a significant fraction of short fibers is produced while recycling old corrugated containerboards , which are usually rejected as solid waste stream , requiring landfilling and posing environmental problems . the major component of these fines rejects are primarily cellulose that can be hydrolyzed into sugars for possible fermentation into biofuels , bioplastics or other sugar based products . use of fines also offers benefits such as negative costs and production of fermentable sugars without requiring complex pretreatment processes , now required to hydrolyze and eliminate inhibitors from hydrolyzate . enzymatic hydrolysis of reject fines from a recycled occ mill , employing different strains of cellulases , were investigated . fillers in the fines increases the required dosage of enzymes and costs . enzyme loading can be lowered by addition of surfactants to reduce their inhibitory activity . the nonionic surfactant triton x - 80 improved hydrolysis yields by up to 10 percent points .

Description:
the fines were procured from a nys based recycled linerboard - manufacturing mill . additionally a comparative study was undertaken where commercial occ boxes were repulped and hydrolyzed using commercial cellulases . unbleached softwood kraft pulp ( uskp ), an unbleached hardwood kraft pulp ( uhkp ) and mixtures of fiber and fillers were used for hydrolysis . recycled occ was prepared by simple slushing of occ boxes and dispersion . pulps were ground and screened through a 200 mesh screen ( such that the accepts were less than 75 μm in size ). samples of commercially available cellulases were obtained — aspergillus nigra , and trichoderma reesei . ph meter 2500 series of cole parmer ® was used for evaluating ph of fines and hydrolysate . solid content and ash content was computed according to the national renewable energy laboratory ( nrel ) laboratory analytical procedure ( lap , nrel / tp - 510 - 42627 , nrel / tp - 510 - 42622 ). enzyme activity was also determined by nrel lap ( nrel / tp - 510 - 42628 ). particle size and zeta potential were defined by a particle size analyzer ( 90 plus / bi - mas , brookhaven instruments co .) the hydrolysis of fines was carried in a medium with a solid to liquid ratio of 1 : 20 with a cellulase dosage of 5 - 100 fpu using 20 ml sodium acetate buffer . a commercial grade enzyme ( c2730 , derived from the fungus trichoderma reesei atcc 26921 ) was procured from sigma aldrich . the hydrolysis flask was placed in a shaking incubator ( reciprocal shaking bath 51221080 , precision co .,) and hydrolyzed at 50 ° c . for 72 h at 100 rpm . the solid residue was recovered by filtration with filter paper ( whatman no . 1 ) and the hydrolysis yield calculated with the weight of sugars divided by total weight of biomass load . sugar content was analyzed by hplc . to determine effect of filler on hydrolysis yield pulp reject mixtures were generated in the lab composed of unbleached softwood kraft pulp ( ukp ) mixed with various proportions of calcium carbonate and kaolin . the filler content was varied to understand the influence of each on hydrolysis yield . imitating the total filler content in original fines , the proportions of calcium carbonate and kaolin were adjusted to a total of 30 % ( w / w ) and the ratio of fillers was varied between 0 - 30 %. since fillers provide adsorption surfaces for the cellulase enzymes which are nonproductive in terms of sugar production , one method of inactivation is to shield their surfaces with a suitable surfactant to prevent enzyme adsorption . a cationic and a nonionic surfactant were chosen for this purpose . cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide ( ctab , catalog no . alfa aesar , ward hill mass .) was obtained in powder form and stock solutions of 1 % w / w in double distilled water were prepared . similar solutions of a non - ionic surfactant , tween - 80 were also prepared . samples of the raw material ( fines or waste rejects ) were preweighed to 1 g dry weight and placed in 100 ml conical flasks provided with magnetic stirrers . surfactants were also dosed followed by the cellulase mixtures in the required dosages . the flasks were shaken in a water bath for varying times upto 48 h and were removed at different time intervals . the hydrolyzed material was then filtered through 0 . 1 um filters and the filtrates were taken as the hydrolyzates for yield and compositional analysis by hplc and 1nmr techniques . the solid residues were dried in an oven and the weights were used in the overall hydrolysis yield calculations . the solid residues were dissolved in 1 % sulfuric acid and subsequently filtered again to determine the acid soluble ( presumably caco 3 ) contents of the minerals . the remaining insoluble residue was taken to represent kaolin . table 1 shows the characteristics of fines from the waste rejects of a recycled linerboard mill repulping occ . the solids were obtained from a screw presses at a consistency ( oven dry mass of solids / total mass ) of 35 %, the remainder being water . the average particle size was 2 . 1 μm . it is likely that the larger particles correspond to fragments of fibers whereas the smaller ones correspond to fillers and other mineral debris in the suspensions . the zeta potential is slightly negative . the higher levels of calcium carbonate and kaolin in the minerals originate most likely from deinking of white paper containing fillers or coated grades of paper . the total ash content was significant consisting 33 % ( g / g ) of fines and calcium carbonate ( caco 3 ) composed around half of this ash . lignin was also contained in the fines at 3 %. the particle size of fines was around 3 μm and the ph was close to neutral ( 6 . 4 ), but the zeta potential was quite low (− 9 mv ). the hydrolysis yields of avicel , ukp - maple ( non - dried ), ukp - softwood ( dried ) and paper mill fines rejects were compared ( fig1 ). avicel is a microcrystalline cellulose and when subjected to hydrolysis , nearly all of the cellulose was readily converted into monomeric glucose . similarly , the conversion of the sample of the unbleached kraft ( hardwood ) pulp was extremely high . this pulp was laboratory prepared ( kappa number of 18 ) and could also be depolymerized to greater than 90 %. the softwood pulp sample was converted to yield only 60 %, probably due to a larger hemicellulose content . unbleached kraft softwood pulp shows lower yields primarily because this pulp was dried and reslushed before enzymatic hydrolysis . the process of drying causes the pulps to hornify i . e . limit the accessibility of cellulose by reducing the cell wall porosity . upon reslushing therefore , a dried pulp fiber will not rehydrate to the same extent as virgin fibers and the cellulases are blocked from entering the crystalline structure to cause hydrolysis . the lowest hydrolysis yield was found for the mill fines rejects ; around 0 . 4 g of sugars from 1 g of fines ( od ) among the four substrates . fillers inhibit hydrolysis in different ways . one of their primary actions is to competitively bind the cellulases thus rendering a significant fraction of the hydrolytics nonproductive . the effect of such fillers on enzyme hydrolysis is shown in fig2 . for this experiment , ukhwp was mixed with 30 % of kaolin and caco 3 ( pcc ) in order to make the composition similar to fines and the hydrolysis yield was measured as a function of enzyme dosage ( in fpu ). the inhibitory effect is different between kaolin and caco 3 and caco 3 had a higher inhibitory potential which decreased enzymatic hydrolysis yield . fig2 shows the glucose yields for two different enzyme mixtures on a sample of bleached kraft hardwood pulp ( eucalyptus ). the trichoderma reesei enzyme was more effective and the aspergillus niger did not show much activity . fillers can reduce the yield of sugar simply by their interference with the enzyme action . most often , their action can be simple competitive adsorption of the enzymes reducing the net activity . the impact of mineral fillers was demonstrated in the present study by mixing kaolin or calcium carbonate filler with unbleached hardwood kraft pulps and subjecting them to hydrolysis . the hydrolysis yield was measured for several enzyme dosages . the results shown in fig3 , indicate that calcium carbonate particles have a dramatic impact , reducing hydrolysis yields as compared to kaolin which was minimally active . it appeared that the calcium carbonate fillers could adsorb large amounts of the enzyme . it may be possible to prevent the interference of hydrolysis by mineral particles by adsorbing a competitive molecule such as a surfactant . calcium carbonate generally has cationic surfaces whereas charges on kaolin platelets are anionic on the basal surfaces . kaolin particle edges also show positive charges within a narrow ph range around neutrality . thus adsorption of ionic or nonionic surfactants could compete and block enzyme adsorption and inactivation by these minerals . we tested the performance of an uncharged ( nonionic ) surfactant at effecting the hydrolysis . the hydrolysis yield of ukp containing caco 3 ( 15 %) was tested with 20 fpu in the range of 0 - 13 % of the nonionic surfactant ( tween - 80 ) dosage . the hydrolysis yield is shown in fig4 as a function of surfactant dosage . the yield increased from 8 % to 21 % at the surfactant dosage of around 7 %. it was observed that the surfactant dosage of lower than 4 % and higher than 10 % did not have impact for hydrolysis yield increase . surfactant adsorption on caco 3 reaches a maximum at about the 7 % level . further addition results in the surfactant remaining in solution , possibly in micellar form and deactivating the enzymes , resulting in steep reductions in yields as observed beyond an optimal level ( 9 %). fig5 shows the impact of the nonionic surfactant on fines hydrolysis at different enzyme dosages . the yields difference was not significant and even low dosage , 3 % of surfactant , obtained slightly higher hydrolysis yield in the range of low fpu . the surfactant effect in relation to yield increase was measured with the artificial synthetic fines from ukp ( softwood ) mixture with caco 3 and kaolin . these proportions of fillers in synthetic fines were to imitate the composition of occ mill rejected fines . the hydrolysis yield of pulp containing fillers was increased with addition of 3 % of the tween - 80 ( fig6 ). fig7 shows the impact of increasing enzyme dosage on the yield for enzymolysis of unbleached kraft pulp samples ( at 48 h , taken to be the ultimate or equilibrium value ). this figure displays the impact of the caco 3 and kaolin fillers , and a possible method of resolving their inhibition using the surfactant . the unbleached kraft pulp hydrolyzes effectively to 60 % yields at high enzyme dosages ( around 50 fpu ). the addition of the surfactant boosts the yields and the enzyme kinetics significantly . when the caco 3 and kaolin fillers were included with the ukp ( 15 % and 15 %, by weight respectively ), the hydrolysis kinetics fell dramatically although the final yield obtained was similar . the inclusion of the surfactant at the optimal dosage resulted in a significant boost to the kinetics and also increased hydrolysis yield . besides providing surfaces for competitive and nonproductive i . e . nonhydrolyzing sites for enzyme adsorption , the caco 3 could performing as an inhibitor in other important ways . for example , the presence of caco 3 alters the ph from the optimal value for hydrolysis and ca 2 + ions could interfere in different ways . charge neutralization and consequent coagulation of particles in the suspensions could occlude enzyme adsorption and thus present kinetic barriers to hydrolysis . fine and ph 5 sodium acetate buffer compounds were varied with ph and buffer did not maintain the mixture ph 5 which was the optimal condition for cellulose . using buffer around ph 5 is common for the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulosic biomass in order to make the ph of solution stable and proper for enzyme . addition of the ph 5 buffer to fines changed the ph of solution to around 6 . 5 . the ph 6 . 5 of the solution was considered as improper initial condition for enzymatic hydrolysis . the buffer of ph 4 was tested and found the initial ph was reduced to 5 . 5 which was more close to optimal ph condition of the enzyme ( ph 5 ). as the results , the lower ph buffer reinforced ability of enzymatic hydrolysis . application of proper ph buffer and surfactant was an effective method to increase enzymatic hydrolysis and minimize enzyme dosage ( fig8 ). the hydrolysis of the cellulosic substrates depends strongly on the accessibility of the internal structure of cellulose , but drying of cellulosic fibers / fines restricts the access to the hydrolytic enzymes ( hornification ). hornification is the result of drying of pulp fibers and fines that results in a loss of amorphous cellulose and reduction of the internal porosity both resulting in marked reduction of the pulp &# 39 ; s hydration capacity , which increases pulp crystallinity . the impact of hornification of the fines by drying is quantified in the present study ( table 2 ). the drying effect i . e . ‘ hornification ’ seems to be responsible in reducing the cellulolytic yields by nearly 30 % for both these substrates . the presence of print ink can also be an inhibitory factor of enzymatic hydrolysis resulting in the difference between the yields of recycled pulp and virgin pulp . printed and unprinted occ were ground to a fine size to determine the decrease in hydrolysis yield . in the results , the gap of enzymatic hydrolysis yields of inked ( 44 % g sugars / g occ ) and non - inked ( 46 % g sugars / g occ ) was not significant . the hydrolysis yield peaked at 50 ° c . while further increase in temperature i . e . 55 ° c ., decreased the hydrolysis yield due to degradation of cellulose . at this temperature , even surfactants failed to improve the hydrolysis yield ( fig9 ). at the lower temperature , 40 ° c ., hydrolysis was decreased 15 - 20 % compared to 50 ° c . 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