Enzymatic Removal of Stickie Contaminants
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ENZYMATIC REMOVAL OF STICKIE binders, and high lignin-containing fibers are some sources CONTAMINANTS of stickies that appear during reprocessing wastepapers. Postal stamps, address labels, post-it notes, and self-seal Marguerite S. Sykes John H. Klungness envelopes are among the most common sources of PSAs in Forest Products Technologist Chemical Engineer office papers. The use of PSAs is increasing rapidly; corre- Freya Tan Said Abubakr spondingly, the stickie problem is escalating. Chemical Engineer Supervisory Chemical Engineer USDA Forest Service USDA Forest Service 1 Stickies precipitate on process equipment, redeposit on pulp Forest Products Laboratory Forest Products Laboratory fibers, or pass into process water, only to agglomerate unex- Madison, WI 53705-2398 Madison, WI 53705-2398 pectedly and deposit when least desired or expected. In all cases, stickies contaminate pulp, cause mill shut-downs as a result of fouling of machinery, and cause breaks in the paper ABSTRACT during papermaking or printing. Control of stickies is a costly mill problem (4) that is growing to epidemic propor- tions. Problems associated with stickies are limiting the use Stickie contaminants are a costly problem for both recyclers of recycled fiber now that there is little competitive of market pulp and the papermakers using it. Increased use of economic edge over using virgin fiber. pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs) has compounded this problem in recycled furnishes. Preliminary laboratory ex- Contaminants, including stickies, are removed most effec- periments using commercially available enzyme preparations tively when they are large enough to be screened out of pulp at the ambient pH of the paper furnish (neutral pH range) slurries, have a density suitable for removal in cleaners, or have resulted in a significant reduction of all residual con- are hydrophobic enough and of the appropriate size to be taminants, including stickies. We found in recent laboratory separated by flotation (5). Unfortunately, many PSAs are trials that pulping with either cellulase, lipase, or a mixture hard to separate by cleaners because their density is close to of both enzymes at the ambient pH of mixed office paper 1.0. Flotation is also problematic because the tackiness of removed the adhesives more effectively than did conventional stickies is often increased during the hot, alkaline repulping alkaline pulping at pH 10. To confirm these preliminary conditions that cause stickies to be too large for good results, a pilot plant scale-up, including pressure screening, removal. Current technology for stickie removal depends will be run at the USDA Forest Service, Forest Products upon pressure screening through screens with decreasing slot Laboratory, and results will be presented at the 1997 TAPPI sizes for the optimal removal. However, the elastic nature of Pulping Conference. Comparative process water quality will stickies paired with their low glass transition temperature be monitored and residual stickies quantified at various stages (Tg) enables them to pass through screen openings as much of recycling. Process water will also be analyzed for colloidal as a magnitude smaller than their actual diameter (6). and dissolved micro-stickies. Perhaps a more critical concern is the problem of colloidal or soluble micro-stickies. Many stickies have some degree of INTRODUCTION alkaline solubility (7,8); therefore, alkaline pulping can cre- ate micro-stickies that remain in process water. Recirculation Stickies, previously a pitch problem associated primarily of process water spreads the stickie contamination to other with mechanical pulping of softwoods, have emerged as the areas of the mill where process conditions alter the solubility primary problem in deinking mills and in papermaking with of these colloidal or dissolved stickies. These undetected recycled content furnishes (1-3). Pressure sensitive adhesives stickies, which resurface upon temperature or pH shock or (PSAs), hot melts, waxes, latex coatings, synthetic toner ink agglomerate with other contaminants, are referred to as sec- ondary stickies (9,10). The trend to system closure and re- duced water use will only exacerbate the build-up of stickie The Forest Products Laboratory is maintained in cooperation concentration in process water. with the University of Wisconsin. This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official Enzyme preparations are proving to be excellent replace- time, and it is therefore in the public domain and not subject ments for some conventional pulping, bleaching, and deink- to copyright. ing chemicals. When used under neutral pH conditions and low sheer pulping, enzymes could prove to be an attractive The use of trade or firm names in this publication is for alternative for stickie removal as well. Our previous studies reader information and does not imply endorsement by the have demonstrated that during enzymatic deinking of office U.S. Department of Agriculture of any product or service. 1997 Pulping Conference /687 paper and subsequent bleaching with pressurized peroxide, (FPL), pilot plant, hopefully in time to report the results at stickie contaminants were also significantly reduced (11). the 1997 TAPPI Pulping Conference. The enzyme-deinked sample contained more than 60% less stickie contaminants after bleaching than did conventionally EXPERIMENTAL deinked pulp (12). The urgency of the problem of stickie contaminants has brought us back to reexamine the possi- This study parallels an extended study of the U.S. Postal bilities of substituting alkaline repulping with enzyme Service (USPS) that is evaluating recyclability of various treatment for stickie removal–PSAs in particular. PSAs in the FPL pilot plant. Unprinted copy paper is being used for the USPS evaluation to eliminate variables in paper In the study reported here, two commercially available en- stock and interactions of adhesives with inks or other con- zymes were used singly and in combination. Our previous taminants. However, in mill recycling a heterogeneous paper experience with cellulase preparations for removing toner furnish containing multiple printing inks and sources of inks from office papers made the best performing commer- stickie contaminants is the norm. We selected a representa- cially available product the logical choice for our stickie tive post-consumer paper furnish to observe resulting interac- removal trials. Because some commercially available lipases tions of stickies with printing inks and other stickie con- are effective for pitch control, we also selected a lipase for taminants while measuring the relative effectiveness of en- our evaluations in this study. zymes for stickie removal. The mechanism by which enzyme preparations facilitate Paper Furnish stickie removal is unclear. It is possible that cellulase mix- tures release stickie particles from fiber surfaces by the same Mixed office paper containing approximately 50% paper mechanism used to describe enzymatic toner ink removal printed with noncontact toner inks was used in this study. (13,14). Gentle neutral pH pulping should keep stickie parti- Four kilograms of this paper was shredded and fiber- cles large so that many can be screened out of the slurry. ized in a Hobart mixer for 5 in at 12% consistency and Fibrils attached to other stickie particles could be severed by 45°C. The fiberized pulp was watered and shredded to en- cellulase, thus facilitating removal of the additional stickies sure a uniform mix and divided into twenty 200-g (ovendry by flotation (15). Although the lipase preparation was de- basis) samples. Each sample spiked with 50 g of an signed to cleave ester linkages in naturally occurring stickie adhesive/paper mixture. The adhesive mix was made simi- compounds extracted from wood during pulping and bleach- larly in a Hobart mixer by fiberizing 1 kg additional office ing, it may work on this synthetic stickie substrate in a very paper on which 18 g of postal stamps were attached. different way when stickies become intermingled with print- ing inks and papermaking additives. Of equal importance is increased tackiness and increased solubility of adhesives dur- Adhesives ing conventional alkaline treatment. Neutral pulping used with enzyme preparations should also improve the quality of Two PSAs used in this study–an acrylate and an isoprene the process water, Process water from enzyme-treated pulp rubber-based latex-were select because they are especially should contain lower chemical oxygen demand, be less toxic, difficult to remove. These experimental adhesives com- and contain fewer micro-stickies than that produced from pounded for recyclability had been applied by the adhesive alkaline repulping as a result of less solubilized material and manufacturers on postage stamp paper for the USPS evalua- alkalinity. tions. Quantification of stickies is not as straight forward as resid- Enzyme Preparations ual ink measurement. Speck check scanners give a fairly accurate measurement of residual ink specks. However, many The enzyme preparation used in this study was a liquid con- stickies are more three dimensional than are ink particles; centrate also containing some hemicellulase activities. The therefore, measurements based on weight of stickies collected lipase preparation, also a liquid concentrate, contains virtu- on screens or adsorbed on polyfoam (16,17) may give a more ally no side activities. Both enzyme preparations were diluted accurate indication of stickie removal. We used