Xylanase (X) derived from Aurreobasidium pullulans and laccase-mediator system (LM) using Trichophyton sp. LKY-7 laccase (TrL) and N-hydroxy-2-pyridone analogue (NHP) as a mediator were applied in hardwood kraft pulp (HwKP) bleaching. The individual and the synergistic effects of X and LM stage were investigated in the enzymatic bleaching of HwKP. Also, the effects of subsequent alkaline extraction (E) and alkaline/hydrogen peroxide treatment (P) were examined. In X or LM treatment alone, an appreciable bleaching effect of HwKP was not observed, whereas subsequent E or P stage enhanced the increase of brightness and the decrease of kappa number. Especially, P stage significantly enhanced the bleaching effect of pulp. Bleaching of HwKP with XLM sequentially gave significantly higher pulp brightness and lower kappa number than that obtained after the treatment of HwKP with X+LM simultaneously. When HwKP was sequentially treated with XLM followed by P stage, the brightness increased by about 11% ISO and the kappa number decreased by about 3.6 in comparison with the initial pulp. Xylanase and laccase were strongly inactivated by NHP both in the absence and the presence of pulp.

This study analyzed the effects of specific factors on the fluorescence index of the fluorescent whitening agent (FWA) that is used for internal addition. The specific factors were identified by the literature review, and a statistical survey was carried out to analyze the effects of those factors on the fluorescence index. Bulk, grammage, fillers and internal sizing agents were selected as the specific factors. The paper samples were prepared with internal FWA in a laboratory. The fluorescence indices of the model papers were measured, and p-values of the specific factors on the fluorescence index were calculated by the SPSS program. Most of p-values were greater than 0.05, so the specific factors do not have a significant impact on the internal FWA fluorescence index.

Renewable Portfolio Standards(RPS) is a regulation that requires a renewable energy generated from eco-friendly energy sources such as biomass, wind, solar, and geothermal. The RPS mechanism generally is an obligatory policy that places on electricity supply companies to produce a designated fraction of their electricity from renewable energies. The domestic companies to supply electricity largely rely on wood pellets in order to implement the RPS in spite of undesirable situation of lack of wood resources in Korea. This means that the electricity supply companies in Korea must explore new biomass as an alternative to wood. Palm kernel shell (PKS) and empty fruit bunch (EFB) as oil palm wastes can be used as raw materials used for making pellets after their thermochemical treatment like torrefaction. Torrefaction is a pretreatment process which serves to improve the properties including heating value and energy densification of these oil palm wastes through a mild pyrolysis at temperature typically ranging between 200 and $300^{\circ}C$ in the absence of oxygen under atmospheric pressure. Torrefaction of oil palms wastes at above $200^{\circ}C$ contributed to the increase of fixed carbon with the decrease of volatile matters, leading to the improvement of their calorific values over 20.9 MJ/kg (=5,000 kcal/kg) up to 25.1 MJ/kg (=6,000 kcal/kg). In particular, EFB sensitively responded to torrefaction because of its physical properties like fiber bundles, compared to PKS and hardwood chips. In conclusion, torrefaction treatment of PKS and EFB can greatly contribute to the implement of RPS of the electricity supply companies in Korea through the increased co-firing biomass with coal.

Guar gum is added to the pulp suspension at the suction side of the fan pump just before the sheet is formed on either a fourdrinier or cylinder machine. Guar gum replaced and supplements these hemicelluloses in paper bonding with many advantages, which include improved sheet formation with a more random distribution of pulp fibers. But, guar gum has serious storage problem. This material has easily decayed after High-temperature conditions such as summer. In this study, various properties of cotton handsheet were measured to solve the problem of deformation while storing guar gum and to improve the durability. After aging, which is one of the durability tests, cotton handsheet with 0.2% and 0.3% of A-PAM showed improved mechanical properties and bursting index and folding endurance of cotton handsheet with 0.3% of A-PAM were similar to those with guar gum. The yellowness loss of cotton handsheet with synthetic polymers was lower than those with guar gum.

Various approaches have been tried to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide in paper industry. One of important approaches is to use PCC manufactured from emission gas as a filler. However, it was recognized that PCC is inferior to other fillers in the paper strength properties of view. Therefore, pretreatment of PCC with pulp powder was tried to mitigate the strength reduction of paper. Pretreatment of PCC with pulp powder improved the bulk(7.4~12.9%) and air permeability(24.8~42.98%), but there is no significant change in opacity. Tensile index, burst index and stiffness were decreased by the use of pretreated PCC with pulp powder. Anionic and cationic PAM were used as a additive for PCC pretreatment in order to improve strength properties. There was no significant change in bulk in all kinds of PAM used in this study. Most strength properties were improved by the pretreatment of PCC with the anionic and cationic PAM and pulp powder, although the opacity and stiffness were more or less decreased.

In this study, we modified the surface of nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) through LbL (Layer-by-Layer) multilayering process with polyelectrolytes and investigated the effects of the NFC modification on the charge of NFC surface and the dewatering ability of NFC suspension. The multilayering process was done onto NFC fibers using polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride (PDADMAC) and poly-sodium 4-styrene sulfonate (PSS) under different dosage and washing conditions. When the washing was carried out in every adsorption stage, the modified NFC had strong cationic or anionic charge depending on the type of polyelectrolyte in the outermost layer and the dewatering ability was not affected. In the case of no washing treatment or washing in the final adsorption stage, however, the zeta potential of NFC was close to an isoelectric point so that the dewatering ability increased remarkably. Low addition level of polyelectrolytes also showed the similar results. The mixing of NFC suspensions with opposite charge resulted in higher network strength and improved dewatering ability due to the flocculation.

The applicability of oil palm EFB(Empty Fiber Bunch) to the papermaking process as a functional organic filler was investigated in this study. Since the EFB has similar chemical composition to the lignocellulose materials such as wood fiber, the fines of EFB was applied to the handsheet paper as an alternative to wood powder which were used as an organic filler to improve water removal efficiency and bulk. The experiments showed that the EFB fines resulted in the higher water removal efficiency at the wet pressing process and leaded to the higher bulk than those of wood powder. In case of 10 % addition of organic filler, the strength properties were not significantly changed. Those results suggested that the EFB could be used as a new organic filler for improving water removal efficiency and bulk property.