The effect of hemicellulose on the enzymatic and mechanical fibrillation efficiency of soda bagasse fiber

Hemicelluloses are the second most abundant polysaccharides in the lignocellulosic materials such as wood and non-wood plants. In this research, high pressure homogenizer (HPH) was used to produce cellulose nanofibesr from two different pulps from bagasse with different amount of hemicelluloses. Also, endoglucanase enzyme pre-treatment was applied to hinder the aggregation of produced fibers and to reduce energy consumption during homogenization process. The amount of fiber fibrillation was analyzed as cellulose nanofiber thickness and surface roughness using laser profilometry (LP) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The results showed that the thickness of the prepared cellulose nanofibers were less than 40nm and there is a direct relationship between hemicellulose content and bagasse cell wall fibrillation. Moreover, paper sheets that contains more hemicelluloses showed a lower LP roughness as well as thinner cellulose nanofiber than that of dissolved pulp. Since roughness can be considered as most important characteristic for fibrillation study, as a result in this study the facilitator effect of hemicellulose for fibrillation was corroborated.