Improvement of enzyme transport in wood chips for thermomechanical pulp refining

► An enzyme treatment was used to treat wood chips prior to mechanical refining. ► Treatment of certain substrate sizes was able to reduce refiner energy consumption. ► Reducing sugar production indicated size reduction alone could not help penetration. ► Compression/decompression in the enzyme solution helped improve penetration. ► A molecular probe coupled to CLSM helped visualize the added penetration.