Immobilization of Lipase on Chitosan Beads for Removal of Pitch Particles from Whitewater during Papermaking

Pitch deposits originating from alkaline peroxide bleaching of mechanical pulps can seriously decrease the runnability of the paper machine when efforts have been made to increase the reuse of process water. In order to degrade pitch particles present in whitewater, lipase was immobilized on chitosan beads using a binary method. The operational stability of the immobilized lipase and its efficacy for treating whitewater were also preliminary studied. The results showed that the highest activity of immobilized lipase was achieved by using 0.5% 1-ethyl-3-(3dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide (EDC) for activation and 0.0025% glutaraldehyde for cross-linking chitosan. The immobilized lipase also exhibited very good operational stability, and the pitch particles present in whitewater could be reduced by 66.8% after treatment with the immobilized lipase.