The effect of oxygen (O2)-delignified pine kraft pulp pretreatment by high-purity, thermostable, and alkaline-tolerant xylanases on elemental chlorine free (ECF) bleaching of O2-delignification kraft pulp was studied. The study found that xylanase pretreatment preserved the intrinsic viscosity and yield of O2-delignified pulp while causing about 7% of delignification with high delignification selectivity. The xylanases with high purity, higher thermostability (75°C~80°C) in highly alkaline media (pH 8.0~9.5) could be applied on an industrial scale. Pulp pretreatment by the high-purity, thermostable, and alkaline tolerant xylanases could improve pulp brightness or reduce the chlorine dioxide (ClO2) consumption. In a D0ED1D2 bleaching sequence using the same amount of ClO2, the xylanase-pretreated pulp obtained a higher brightness (88.2% vs. 89.7% ISO) at the enzyme dose of 2 U/g pulp; or for the same brightness as control (88.2% ISO), the ClO2 dosage in the D0 stage was reduced by 27%, which represents a 16% savings in total ClO2 used for bleaching.
