Fouling problems caused by lignin have been limiting the use of membranes in the recovery of value-added materials from biorefinery streams. Fortunately, laccase-based catalytic pretreatments enable modification of lignin to the less fouling form. Because the mechanisms behind the fouling caused by ligneous compounds in wood-based streams are still not deeply understood, the aim of this study was to find out how laccase oxidation affects membrane fouling caused by pressurized hot-water extract. The effect of laccase on the fouling tendency of birch extract was explored both with adsorptive and pressure-driven experiments. The results suggested that laccase treatment increased the molar mass of lignin and improved significantly filtration capacity of commercial polyethersulphone membrane, possibly due to formation of less dense foulant layer during the filtration. Based on FTIR and BET results laccase oxidation decreased both adsorptive and pressure-driven fouling caused by lignin. However, decreases in pure water permeabilities were higher for the samples that were fouled with laccase treated extract. This may have originated from the transformation in the fouling mechanism from the pore narrowing to the pore blocking and could be prevented by the selection of a membrane with a different pore size.

由木质素引起的结垢问题已经限制了膜在从生物精炼流中回收增值材料中的使用。幸运的是，基于漆酶的催化预处理能够将木质素改性为较少结垢的形式。由于木质物流中木质化合物造成结垢的机制仍未得到深入了解，因此本研究的目的是发现漆酶氧化如何影响加压热水提取物引起的膜结垢。通过吸附和压力驱动实验研究了漆酶对桦木提取物结垢趋势的影响。结果表明，漆酶处理可增加木质素的摩尔质量，并显着提高商品化聚醚砜膜的过滤能力，可能是由于在过滤过程中形成了密度较低的污垢层。根据FTIR和BET结果，漆酶氧化减少了木质素引起的吸附性和压力驱动性结垢。但是，用漆酶处理过的提取物污染的样品的纯水渗透率降低幅度更大。这可能是由于结垢机理从细孔变窄到阻塞而引起的，可以通过选择孔径不同的膜来防止。