High consistency cellulase treatment of hardwood prehydrolysis kraft based dissolving pulp

•A high pulp consistency condition favors the cellulase adsorption.•The improvement in the pulp properties was enhanced under the high consistency cellulase treatment.•The high pulp consistency concept has better industrial relevance.

For enzymatic treatment of dissolving pulp, there is a need to improve the process to facilitate its commercialization. For this purpose, the high consistency cellulase treatment was conducted based on the hypothesis that a high cellulose concentration would favor the interactions of cellulase and cellulose, thus improves the cellulase efficiency while decreasing the water usage. The results showed that compared with a low consistency of 3%, the high consistency of 20% led to 24% increases of cellulase adsorption ratio. As a result, the viscosity decrease and Fock reactivity increase at consistency of 20% were enhanced from 510 mL/g and 70.3% to 471 mL/g and 77.6%, respectively, compared with low consistency of 3% at 24 h. The results on other properties such as alpha cellulose, alkali solubility and molecular weight distribution also supported the conclusion that a high consistency of cellulase treatment was more effective than a low pulp consistency process.