Enzyme-based control of oxalic acid in the pulp and paper industry

Abstract

Enzymatically catalyzed decomposition of oxalic acid in bleaching filtrates from the pulp and paper industry offers a possibility to enduringly prevent oxalate scaling problems by specific removal of the oxalic acid in the system rather than by attempting to avoid calcium oxalate precipitation by countermeasures aiming at improved solubility. To achieve a broad evaluation of various oxalate-degrading enzymes and to cover conditions encountered in various types of processes, 16 different bleaching filtrates were collected from pulp mills engaged in mechanical pulping of softwood, mechanical pulping of aspen, and kraft pulping of softwood. A novel oxalate-degrading enzyme provided by Novozymes was compared with commercially available oxalate oxidase from barley and oxalate decarboxylase from Aspergillus niger. The activity of the enzymes in the filtrates was investigated using kinetic analysis and multivariate data analysis. Kinetic analysis indicated that the degradation rates were governed more by inhibitors in the filtrates than by the concentration of oxalic acid. Multivariate data analysis suggested links between high concentrations of certain compounds in the filtrates and high or low enzyme activity, as exemplified by the link between high concentrations of chelators in filtrates from mechanical pulping and low activity of oxalate oxidase from barley. All three enzymes could degrade oxalic acid in all filtrates, despite the fact that very high concentrations of residual hydrogen peroxide were found in several of the filtrates.