Development of Domestic Taylor-flow Nanogrinder for Manufacturing Cellulose Nanofiber I : Evaluation of the Physical Properties of Enzyme-Pretreated Cellulose Nanofiber for the Performance Evaluation of a Pilot Scale Taylor-flow Nanogrinder

Abstract

In this study, we attempted to manufacture a pilot scale Taylor-flow nanogrinder (pilot nanogrinder) and evaluated its grinding efficiency by analyzing the characteristics of cellulose nanofiber (CNF). To prepare an enzyme-pretreated CNF (EN-CNF), softwood bleached kraft pulp (SwBKP) was grounded using the pilot nanogrinder after being pretreated with 1.0% of an endo-glucanase. EN-CNF was also prepared with the same pretreated SwBKP using an imported microgrinder as a control. Finally, their particle size, viscosity, and fiber width were determined.BRThe enzyme effectively reduced the fiber length of SwBKP for producing EN-CNF using grinders due to the removal of amorphous regions and microfibrils from SwBKP. As the grinding time of the pilot nanogrinder increased, the particle size and fiber width of EN-CNF decreased and the viscosity of EN-CNF increased. The imported grinder showed the same trends.BRBased on the fiber width of the EN-CNFs, the grinding efficiency of the pilot nanogrinder was 98% that of the imported microgrinder and improved significantly compared to the previous study. However, the pilot nanogrinder required more grinding time than the imported microgrinder for manufacturing the CNFs of similar size. Therefore, although the pilot grinder effectively produced CNF, it was also necessary to develop a technology that could accelerate the grinding process.