ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Ethanol/water pulp enzymatic pretreatment: Chemical and FTIR-PCA analyses

D. S. Ruzene and A. R. Gonçalves

Department of Biotechnology, Engineering School of Lorena, University of São Paulo, P.O.Box116, 12602-810 Lorena-SP, Brazil

E-mail: ruzeneds@hotmail.com adilson@debiq.faenquil.br

Received: 4 January 2007  Revised: 1 June 2007  Accepted: 6 June 2007

Abstract: Pulps obtained from ethanol/water cooking of sugarcane bagasse were treated at different times using xylanase enzyme obtained from Thermomyces lanuginosus IOC-4145 or commercially (Cartazyme HS, Sandoz Products Ltd.). The enzyme dosage was 18 IU per g of dry pulp and the time varied from 4 h to 12 h. When xylanase from T. lanuginosus was used, the kappa number and viscosity improved independently of the processing time used (4 h, 8 h, and 12 h). After chemical evaluation, the obtained pulps were classified using Fourier Transformed Infra-Red Spectroscopy and Principal Component Analysis. The results showed that the first three principal components explained more than 90 % of the total variance of the pulp spectra.

Keywords: ethanol/water pulping - sugarcane bagasse - xylanase bleaching - Fourier transform infrared spectra - principal component analysis

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.2478/s11696-007-0064-x

Chemical Papers 61 (6) 472–476 (2007)