Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials
Open Access

Abstract

Deinking is a process, used for removal of ink from wastepaper, promote the usage of waste paper and bypass the use of green plants. Deinking of waste paper using enzymes is an ecofriendly process which reduces the consumption of hazardous chemicals. Enzymes can act either directly on the fiber or on the ink.Deinking of Old News Print (ONP) using bacterialLaccase (L) and Xylanase (X) enzymes along with physical deinking methods of microwaving (MW) and sonication (S) was performed. Compared to the pulp deinked with xylanase (47.9%) or laccase (62.2%) individually, the percentage reduction of effective residual ink concentration (ERIC) was higher for the combined xylanase/laccase-deinked pulp (65.8%). An increase in brightness (21.6%), breaking length (16.5%), burst factor (4.2%) tear factor (6.9%), viscosity (13%) and cellulose crystallinity (10.3%) along with decrease in kappa number (22%) and chemical consumption (50%) were also observed. Fiber surface composition and morphological changes were studied using X-ray diffraction, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Surface appeared more fibrillar along with changes in surface functional groups. A combination of physical and enzymatic processes (S-MW-XL) for deinking further improved brightness (28.8%) and decreased ERIC (73.9%) substantially.This was the first report on deinking of ONP with laccase without any mediator supplementation. XL pretreatment resulted in marked improvement in paper quality and a new sequence being reported for deinking (S-MW-XL) will contribute further in decreasing chemical consumption and making the process commercially feasible.

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vijaya1gupta@gmail.com