Spruce pulp treatment with an esterase from Ophiostoma piceae significantly decreases the content of both triglycerides and sterol esters responsible for pitch deposits
2002
Calero-Rueda, Olga | Gutiérrez Suárez, Ana | Río Andrade, José Carlos del | Martínez, Ángel T. | Martínez, María Jesús
An esterase has been isolated from the ascomycete Ophiostoma piceae showing high affinity (Km around 1 mM) and activity on both glycerol and sterol esters of long chain fatty acids (kcat around 290 s-1 for triolein and 138 s-1 for cholesteryl oleate). This enzyme could have high potential for the enzymatic control of pitch in paper pulp manufacturing from different raw materials. Northern spruce (Picea abies) pulp containing triglycerides and sterol esters as the main lipophilic compounds, was treated with the O. piceae esterase (a control with boiled enzyme was included). The treated pulps were lyophilized, Soxhlet extracted with acetone, and the chloroform soluble compounds analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. After 3-h treatment, 87% of triglycerides and 46% of sterols esters in the spruce pulp were degraded by the O. piceae esterase. These results suggest that O. piceae esterase could be used for pitch biocontrol in both hardwood and softwood paper pulp manufacturing
Show more [+] Less [-]This work has been funded by the EU projects FAIR CT95-560 and QLK5-99-1357 and the Spanish project 1FD97-0742. O. Calero thanks the financial support received from the Spanish Comunidad de Madrid.
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