Different pulps were chemically (nitren) and biologically (enzyme) treated in order to improve the chemical accessibility and dissolution capacity in cold NaOH. The treatments effect on the pulp properties was accessed by studying the changes on their chemical and macromolecular structure and by analyzing the dissolution performance in cold NaOH.The nitren treatment has the effect of removing a large part of the xylan present in a dissolving pulp and is also removing mannans. Increasing the nitren concentrations will extract also cellulose and decrease its mean molar mass. These extractions are favorable for the dissolution in cold NaOH-water, being more effective with higher nitren concentrations. A maximum of 44.7% increase on the dissolution yield was achieved.The new enzymatic treatment shows a higher efficiency on promoting fibers accessibility to NaOH ions, (directly correlated with the enzymatic load), allowing a maximum increase of 150% on the dissolution yield. A slight decrease of the average molar mass was also seen. The different pulps reacted differently to the treatments, showing that the pulping pretreatments have an influence on the enzymatic efficiency. Using a mixture of enzymes and endoglucanase showed that the synergistic effect of these two enzymes is more effective on cellulose activation.Both nitren and enzymatic treatments are improving the pulp chemical accessibility mostly by modifying the structure of the primary wall and S1 wall. This promotes the swelling of these wood cell structures, allowing the access of the NaOH solvating ions into fiber regions not accessible on the original pulp. The nitren is disassembling the fiber surface with extraction of hemicelluloses and degrading the cellulosic structure.The use of this enzyme on the cellulose pulps activation towards dissolution in cold NaOH is of great importance. It presents a high potential in both technical, with further development and industrial implementation, and fundamental research fields, with further studies on mechanisms of cellulose activation.The work was performed in Cemef - Mines ParisTech, Sophia Antipolis, France, and TI / Hamburg University, Germany and financed by Sappi, Tembec, Lenzing, Viskase and Spontex and had support from EPNOE (European Polysaccharide Network of Excellence).

Different pulps were chemically (nitren) and biologically (enzyme) treated in order to improve the chemical accessibility and dissolution capacity in cold NaOH. The treatments effect on the pulp properties was accessed by studying the changes on their chemical and macromolecular structure and by analyzing the dissolution performance in cold NaOH.The nitren treatment has the effect of removing a large part of the xylan present in a dissolving pulp and is also removing mannans. Increasing the nitren concentrations will extract also cellulose and decrease its mean molar mass. These extractions are favorable for the dissolution in cold NaOH–water, being more effective with higher nitren concentrations. A maximum of 44.7% increase on the dissolution yield was achieved.The new enzymatic treatment shows a higher efficiency on promoting fibers accessibility to NaOH ions, (directly correlated with the enzymatic load), allowing a maximum increase of 150% on the dissolution yield. A slight decrease of the average molar mass was also seen. The different pulps reacted differently to the treatments, showing that the pulping pretreatments have an influence on the enzymatic efficiency. Using a mixture of enzymes and endoglucanase showed that the synergistic effect of these two enzymes is more effective on cellulose activation.Both nitren and enzymatic treatments are improving the pulp chemical accessibility mostly by modifying the structure of the primary wall and S1 wall. This promotes the swelling of these wood cell structures, allowing the access of the NaOH solvating ions into fiber regions not accessible on the original pulp. The nitren is disassembling the fiber surface with extraction of hemicelluloses and degrading the cellulosic structure.The use of this enzyme on the cellulose pulps activation towards dissolution in cold NaOH is of great importance. It presents a high potential in both technical, with further development and industrial implementation, and fundamental research fields, with further studies on mechanisms of cellulose activation.The work was performed in Cemef - Mines ParisTech, Sophia Antipolis, France, and TI / Hamburg University, Germany and financed by Sappi, Tembec, Lenzing, Viskase and Spontex and had support from EPNOE (European Polysaccharide Network of Excellence). / Different pulps were chemically (nitren) and biologically (enzyme) treated in order to improve the chemical accessibility and dissolution capacity in cold NaOH. The treatments effect on the pulp properties was accessed by studying the changes on their chemical and macromolecular structure and by analyzing the dissolution performance in cold NaOH.The nitren treatment has the effect of removing a large part of the xylan present in a dissolving pulp and is also removing mannans. Increasing the nitren concentrations will extract also cellulose and decrease its mean molar mass. These extractions are favorable for the dissolution in cold NaOH–water, being more effective with higher nitren concentrations. A maximum of 44.7% increase on the dissolution yield was achieved.The new enzymatic treatment shows a higher efficiency on promoting fibers accessibility to NaOH ions, (directly correlated with the enzymatic load), allowing a maximum increase of 150% on the dissolution yield. A slight decrease of the average molar mass was also seen. The different pulps reacted differently to the treatments, showing that the pulping pretreatments have an influence on the enzymatic efficiency. Using a mixture of enzymes and endoglucanase showed that the synergistic effect of these two enzymes is more effective on cellulose activation.Both nitren and enzymatic treatments are improving the pulp chemical accessibility mostly by modifying the structure of the primary wall and S1 wall. This promotes the swelling of these wood cell structures, allowing the access of the NaOH solvating ions into fiber regions not accessible on the original pulp. The nitren is disassembling the fiber surface with extraction of hemicelluloses and degrading the cellulosic structure.The use of this enzyme on the cellulose pulps activation towards dissolution in cold NaOH is of great importance. It presents a high potential in both technical, with further development and industrial implementation, and fundamental research fields, with further studies on mechanisms of cellulose activation.The work was performed in Cemef - Mines ParisTech, Sophia Antipolis, France, and TI / Hamburg University, Germany and financed by Sappi, Tembec, Lenzing, Viskase and Spontex and had support from EPNOE (European Polysaccharide Network of Excellence).