Rev Environ Sci Biotechnol (2010) 9:141151 DOI 10.

1007/s11157-010-9200-0

REVIEWS

Biopulping of lignocellulosic material using different fungal species: a review

Pooja Singh Othman Sulaiman Rokiah Hashim P. F. Rupani Leh Cheu Peng

Published online: 25 February 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010

Abstract Biopulping can be an alternative to the traditional methods of pulping. Biopulping use fungi that are known to be able to degrade wood as well as lignin constituent of wood. Amongst these white rot fungi are the most procient biodegrader. The fungus is non sporulating and is a selective lignin degrader. It colonizes either on living or dead wood and decomposes all wood polymers including lignin and extractives making it to be extremely potential to be used in biopulping. The process of biopulping reduces the utilization of chemical in pulping industry and help in decreasing the environmental hazard caused by normal pulping. The present review deals with diverse aspects of biopulping and their ecological as well as economic signicances. Keywords Biopulping Lignocellulosic material Fungal species Lignin Cellulose Hemicellulose

1 Introduction Deployment of biopulping in pulping is the rst processing step in the paper industry. The aim of the procedure is to eliminate lignin and avoid the cellulose decomposition. Pulping methods use chemicals to dissolve wood bres and grind mechanically the bres to form pulp. Pulp and paper industries exploit biological raw materials, which are synthesized, modied and degraded in nature by a number of microbes using a vast array of enzymes. The fungal pretreatment of wood chips to reduce consumption of chemical in pulping, is Biopulping (Eriksson et al. 1976, 1983). Though the initial idea of using biodegrader had been proposed as early as 1950s (Lawson and Still 1957). Biopulping use biological methods as promising alternative to the alkali and chemical bleaches (Keller et al. 2003). In biopulping the bulk of the hemicellulose and lignin components need to be removed by a number of different types of enzymes produced by these lamentous fungi (Manpreet et al. 2005). The present review deals with a variety of aspects of biopulping and their biological as well as implications in trade and industry.

P. Singh O. Sulaiman (&) R. Hashim L. C. Peng Bioresource, Paper and Coatings Technology, School of Industrial Technology, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Pulau Pinang, Malaysia e-mail: othman@usm.my P. F. Rupani Environmental Technology Division, School of Industrial Technology, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

2 Pulping and its types Pulping is the process of converting wood to separate pulp bers for papermaking. Pulp and paper can be

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made from lignocellulosic material such as wood, agricultural residues or from waste paper. The manufacturing of pulp and paper involves three major processing stepspulping, bleaching and paper production. The pulping course inuence the properties produced of the pulp (Rushdan et al. 2008). There are three main types of pulping, namely mechanical or ground wood pulp, chemical and lastly the combination one which includes, chemical and mechanical pulping. Mechanical pulping accounts for about 25% of the wood pulp production in the world. The mechanical pulping involves grinding raw material against an abrasive surface to debre the raw material without any lignin dissolution. The yield is normally more than 95%, as mechanical pulping does not remove the lignin. However, paper made from this pulp by and large becomes yellow and brittle over time. Mechanical pulps produce short bre lengths and poor quality paper that is acidic with a shorter life expectancy. Mechanical pulping require high electrical energy as compared to chemical pulping. Although large amounts of electrical energy are neededd the costs of production is still less than chemical pulp. Chemical pulping involves the separation of bers from raw materials making it soluble in a chemical at high temperature and pressure. Chemical pulping is mainly of two types of processes i.e., acid (Sulte) and alkaline (Kraft). About 20% chemical wood pulp is made by the sulphite process. In kraft method, chips are dissolved in caustic soda and sulphur by heat and pressure leaving a strong brown pulp, coloured by the effect of the chemicals on the lignin. The pulp is commonly known as Kraft. This type of pulping produces 75% of the total paper. These chemical process uses less energy and produces lower bre yield typically 5060% in comparison to the mechanical pulping (Messner et al. 1998; Bajpai et al. 2003). However, chemical pulping gives superior paper quality as compared to mechanical pulp. But the result on environment is very high as it produces a strong liquid efuent that needs to be treated. The bers produced tend to be longer and stronger also the papers have a greater life expectancy. There is also a combination pulping too. The combination normally refers to a mixture of the mechanical and chemical pulping processes. The method involves heating the wood chips to extreme temperatures to soften them before passing through reners

for mechanical reduction to bers. The chemicals are then sprayed onto the chips in the combination thermo mechanical process (CTMP) to assist in the softening of the chips during rening. During processing, the pulp are bleached to whiten the naturally brown paper. It may also be sized or coated with chemicals for various surface nishes. This bleaching and sizing agents tend to make chemical wood pulp papers acidic. For thermomechanical pulp (TMP) there is a need to reduce energy in the rener and make stronger paper products (Meyer-Pinson et al. 2004). While strength can be improved by blending with more costly chemical pulps, increasing the intrinsic strength of TMP will result in higher quality pulp production. Biopulping, the treatment of wood chips by whiterot fungi and subsequent chip rening, was envisioned as a method for saving energy and making a stronger paper product (Akhtar et al. 1998). The process of biopulping was developed to improve the quality of mechanical pulps and signicantly reduce the electrical energy required for pulping wood chips (Shukla et al. 2004; Akhtar et al. 1998).

3 Overview of the biopulping process Mechanical pulping process use wood but consume considerable amount of electrical energy during rening. In biopulping the wood chips are pretreated with inoculums of fungi prior to rening, the wood chips become softened and more porous. Consequently, these treated chips are more easily broken apart when they are puried. This will reduce substantial energy during rening. Figure 1 shows with conceptual overview of the biopulping process. The biopulping procedure involves decontaminating wood chips with steam to eliminate competitive naturally occurring bacteria and fungi. Next they are sprayed with a dilute inoculum of a selected fungus. Inoculated chips are incubated in an aerated chip pile for 2 weeks. Under warm, moist conditions the lignin degrading fungi colonize chip surfaces and penetrate chip interiors with a network of hyphae. These treated chips are more readily broken apart during subsequent rening, and produces exible, intact bers. There are few considerations for a fungus to be used commercially in biopulping. These include:

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Fig. 1 Overview of the steps involved in biopulping process (Scott et al. 1998)

1. 2. 3. 4.

5. 6.

Relatively faster growth rate, Ability to nurture on both hard as well as soft wood, Preferred action against hemicellulose and lignin united with low activity on cellulose, Since the expansion of moulds on chip piles cause health problems for the workers in the pulp and paper industry, fungi should be enable to elicit allergies, Small pigmentation that might decrease pulp brightness, First-rate capability to sporulate in order to cause the inoculation of the wood chips.

Various species of white rot fungi have been used for biopulping, however, Ceriporiopsis subvermispora has proven to be very competitive both on softwoods and hardwoods (Ferraz et al. 2007). The physiology and biochemistry of C. subvermispora has been studied to allow an intensication of the biopulping process (Sethuraman et al. 1998; Milagres et al. 2005). Evaluation of enzymes produced during biopulping process have shown that C. subvermispora produces several manganese peroxidase (MnP) and laccase isoenzymes, each exhibiting isoelectric points that vary according to the composition of the medium (Lobos et al. 2001). White rot fungi and their enzymes (specially ligninases and xylanases) are considered for the wood chips treatment of prior to pulping. While ligninases attack the lignin content of wood, xylanases degrade hemicelluloses and make the pulp more permeable for the removal of residual lignin. Thus, biopulping process not only removes lignin but also some of the wood extractives, thus reducing the pitch content and efuent toxicity (Ali and Sreekrishnan 2001).

Arias et al. (2009) studied the suitability of different Streptomyces strains for biomechanical pulping purposes using spruce wood (Picea abies) as substrate. Insignicant variations in Klason lignin content of treated woods were detected as compared with the control after 2 weeks of incubation (Arias et al. 2009). However, the increase in acid-soluble lignin fraction pointed out chemical alterations in lignin moiety. Enrichment in cellulose and lignin molecule modications were detected in treated woods through Py-GC/ MS analysis (Arias et al. 2009). The increase in most G-type phenol units with a higher oxidation degree suggests that some oxidation occurred in the lignin C3alkyl chain. Additionally, the decrease in the phenylmethane ? phenylethane/phenyl propane (phC1 ? ph C2/ph C3) ratio indicated the ability of Streptomyces strains to breakdown the C3-alkyl chain linkages once carbons had been oxidized (Arias et al. 2009). From this study Arias et al. (2009) concluded that the assayed strains are able to produce a delignication of spruce wood which may improve mechanical pulping processes. As the white rot fungi consumes some of the pitch enclosed in the lignocellulosic material (wood chips), both the toxicity and biological oxygen demand (BOD) content of mill process water are decreased. Also these pulps are more responsive to oxidative and reductive bleaching chemicals (Fischer et al. 1994). Biopulping produces a superior mechanical pulp, therefore it can be considered a viable alternative to chemical pulping and it cost less to construct because it requires simpler equipment and produces an efuent with reduced BOD. For an existing pulping plant for biopulping required no additional equipment. However, equipment for asepsis and inoculation, such as a conveyor system, steam, and inocula delivery, is needed. Paper made from pretreated wood chips are robust than that made from conventional mechanical pulp. Moreover it displays better optical properties, except for brightness (Atalla et al. 2004).

4 Chemical composition of lignocellulosic material Lignocelluloses accounts for more than 60% of the total biomass production (Kuhad et al. 1997). Lignocellulosic waste material is produced in huge amounts in agriculture, forestry and in the pulp and

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paper industry. The chemical composition of lignocellulosic biomass differs considerably and is inuenced by genetic and environmental factors (Florez et al. 2009). Besides it is a renewable source of food, energy and chemicals. The chemical properties of lignocellulose make them a substrate of enormous biotechnological value. Typical chemical composition of various lignocellulosic materials is given in Table 1. The core constituents of lignocellulose are cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin (Malherbe and Cloete 2002). This forms the primary polymers while waxes and proteins make the structural polymers. The cellulose and hemicelluloses principally determined the tensile strength of wood bres and lignin mediates union amongst them. Cellulose is a linear polymer of glucose linked througha 1,4-linkages and is usually arranged in microcrystalline structure, which makes it difcult to hydrolyse under natural conditions. The degree of polymerization (DP) of cellulose chains range from 500 to 25,000 (Kuhad et al. 1997; Leschine 1995). Hemicellulose is a heteropolysaccharide composed of different hexoses, pentoses, and glucoronic acid. It has more solubility than cellulose and is frequently branched with short branched chains of hexoses, e.g., Mannose units in mannans and Pentoses such as xylose units in xylans (Kuhad et al. 1997). Xylan is the most common hemicellulose component of grass and wood. The major hemicellulose degrading

Table 1 Chemical composition of different lignocellulosic bers Lignocellulosic bers Chemical composition (%) a-Cellulose Lignin Inorganic compounds 59 68 1520 56 2022 25 25 01 01 Silica

Wheat straw Oats straw Rice straw Maize stalk Rice husk Sugar cane Kenaf Oil palm frond Softwoods Hardwoods

3846 3137 2836 N/A 3840 3244 3139 49.8 4045 3848

1621 1619 1216 2224 2224 1924 1419 20.5 2634 2330

37 47 914 35 1920 37 N/A 0 0

enzymes are endoxylanases and endomannanases (Kulkarni et al. 1999). Hemicelluloses append with bundles of cellulose brils to form microbrils, which enhance the stability of the cell wall. They create a complex web of bonds by cross-linking with lignin, which provide structural strength (Ladisch et al. 1983; Lynch 1992). Lignin is a highly irregular and insoluble polymer consisting of phenylpropanoid subunits, namely p-hydroxyphenyl (H-type), guaiacyl (G-type) and syringyl (S-type) units. There are no chains like cellulose or hemicellulose which makes the enzymatic hydrolysis of polymer extremely difcult. There are repeating bond in lignin polymer with a random distribution of at least 10 different types of bond, the most common being the b-aryl ether (b-O-4) bond (Argyropoulos and Menachem 1997). The molecular weight (MW) of lignin is high, about 100 kDa or more, which prevents its uptake inside the microbial cell (Eriksson et al. 1990). Lignin degradation occurs quite slow in nature via the action of fungi as its heterogeneous structure renders it highly difcult to degrade. Some specialize fungi could produce ligninases that delignies the cell wall and provide greater access to more digestible plant cellulosic material (Chen and Dixon 2007). Lignin darkens and breakdown into acidic by-products as the wood ages. A number of microorganisms are involved in the degradation of lignocellulosic material in natural environments. Some fungi especially white rot have developed the necessary enzymes to break lignin apart. The initial reactions are mediated by extracellular lignin and manganese peroxidases, primarily produced by the white rot fungi (Kirk and Farrell 1987). Actinomycetes can also decompose lignin, but typically degrade less than 20% of the total lignin present (Cawford 1986; Basaglia et al. 1992). Lignin degradation is primarily an aerobic process, and in an anaerobic environment lignin can persist for very long periods (Van Soest 1994).

5 Mechanisms of wood degradation by fungi The structure of wood chips can be modied chemically or by application of enzymes. The two broad classications based on observations of wood after extensive decay by fungi are namely white rot and brown rot (Hakala 2007). Both belong to group

Source: Fadl et al. (1978), Tappi (1983), Youngquist et al. (1993), Khalil et al. (2006)

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of wood decaying Basidiomycetes though the morphological aspects of decomposition of wood are not alike. The brown rot fungi are known to cause more damage to the wood in service than white rot. While, white rot fungi mortify hardwoods more competently than softwoods (Enoki et al. 1988). Most white rot species have the ability to disintegrate and mineralize lignin (Hunt et al. 2002). On the contrary, the majority of brown rot species only modies lignin and do not mineralize it. Brown rot causes rapid depolymerization of cellulose though they lack exogenous Endo-1, 4 b glucanase activity (Kirk and Highley 1973). Thus, they split up wood by selectively degrading the hemicelluloses and cellulose without extensively altering the lignin (Cowling 1961).White rot fungi are well known for their extraordinary ability to tear down lignin and microcrystalline cellulose by extracellular peroxidases and other enzymes (Table 2). The biodegradative abilities of white rot fungi are remarkable, both in terms of the number of different chemicals that can be oxidized, and in the nature of chemicals that can be oxidized. The biodegradation system of white rot fungi is versatile. The long established view is that brown rot fungi use non specic oxidants like hydroxyl radical while whiterot fungi use enzymes to degrade lignin (Hunt et al. 2002). Most fungi produce oxalate which increases the alkali consumption in pulping. Alkali impregnation experiments showed that selectively lignin degrading fungi render lignin more alkali soluble and degrade lignin to smaller molecular weight compounds (Goodell et al. 1997). Using enzymes and special techniques to increase their accessibility to wood, individual components could be eliminated from wood. A modest attention has been paid to
Table 2 Effect of different white rot fungi species on wood quality (Blanchette et al. 1988) Fungus Weight Loss (%) loss (%) Lignin Glucose Xylose 65 44 17 34 31 64 71 54 75 73 89 65 44 5 4 0 8 68 43 13 39 32 44

mechanism of wood decay; though it is known that the fungi degrade lignin to a signicant extent is incapable of penetrating the walls of sound wood. The areas of the walls that have been profoundly decayed by white rot fungi, which break down lignin and hemicelluloses somewhat selectively, were penetrated by the enzyme (Blanchette et al. 1989).

6 Changes in wood properties due to biopulping The concept is based on the fact that certain white rot fungi can degrade lignin in wood after colonization leaving cellulose relatively intact. Biopulping can be carried out in several types of bioreactors including an open chip pile that depends on the requirements of the particular microorganism. The variable factors for optimal results are temperature, humidied air and nutrient addition (Sethuraman et al. 1998; Milagres et al. 2005). Using chemical pretreatments, alterations in the structure of hemicelluloses and pectins can be achieved. These modications either enzymatically or chemically are presently exploited in the production of chemi mechanical pulps (CMP) of wood chips. This make stronger paper products as strength is improved by blending with chemical pulps (MeyerPinson et al. 2004). Hunt et al. (2004) identied a mechanism for biopulping, where white rot fungi create or attach carboxylic acid groups (oxalate esters) on the carbohydrates in wood. Since oxalic acid (OA) is a dicarboxylic acid, addition of one acid group in an ester bond leaves the second carboxylic acid group free (Hunt et al. 2004). Attachment or conguration of carboxylic acid groups raise the inux of water and so wood bulge, outcome of which is energy is conserved during rening. Acid groups on bre surfaces in addition, reinforce binding between bers, improves the tensile and burst strength of paper products (Hunt et al. 2004). Yaghoubi et al. (2008) used C. subvermispora for biochemical pulping of agricultural residues and the results were compared with chemical pulping. Biological treatment of rice, wheat and barley straw samples resulted in decrease of the kappa number by 34, 21 and 19%, respectively, as compared with controlled samples (Yaghoubi et al. 2008). The tensile strength and burst factor of hand sheets produced from rice straw were reported to increase

Coriolus versicolor Dichomitus squalens Phellinus pini Phlebia tremellosus Poria medullapanis

Scytinostroma galactinum 37

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by 51 and 33% as compared with the control straws (Yaghoubi et al. 2008). The tensile strength and burst factor of hand sheets produced from wheat straws were reported to improve by 67 and 36%, these variables for barley straws were found to be 36.7 and 45% (Yaghoubi et al. 2008), respectively. The quality of papers produced by biochemical pulping of straws was excellent, although the delignication of wheat and barley straws is not as efcient as chemical process (Yaghoubi et al. 2008). Levin et al. (2007) studied the ability of eight white rot fungi: Coriolopsis rigida, Coriolus versicolor var. antarcticus, Peniophora sp., Phanerochaete sordida, Pycnoporus sanguineus, Steccherinum sp., Trametes elegans and Trametes villosa to selectively delignify loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) chips. Biological pretreatment with fungi was reported to cause changes in chemical composition as well as in physical structure of wood (Levin et al. 2007). The present study allowed the identication of a new strain, potentially a candidate for use in softwoods biopulping processes. It was reported that P. sanguineus was able to reduce lignin content by 11% in 14 days of treatment, but P. taeda wood also suffered a notable structural changes in lignin and hemicelluloses during the treatment, which was revealed from 13C CP-MAS NMR spectra (Levin et al. 2007). An increase in porosity (15%) of decayed wood conrmed physical changes due to fungal attack (Levin et al. 2007). The two main disadvantages of biopulping i.e., pulp darkening and 2 weeks incubation time, have limited its commercial deployment, but several effects of biopulping can be mimicked in the absence of organisms. OA excreted by wood degrading fungi (Shimada et al. 1994; Dutton and Evans 1996) is thought to lead to hemicellulose degradation and cellulose depolymerisation (Green et al. 1991). Oxidative reactions by manganese peroxidase which is produced by white rot fungi are enhanced by chelation of manganese ions by oxalate, providing greater solubility and oxidative action at a distance from the enzyme (Wariishi et al. 1992; Kuan and Tien 1993; Kishi et al. 1994; Sutherland et al. 1995; Timofeevski and Aust 1997; Zapanta and Tien 1997). Oxidative actions involving oxalate can produce free radicals (Khindaria et al. 1994), which might result in oxalate attachment. Experimental studies by several workers on biopulping indicated that OA might be

suitable for pretreatment of wood chips (Akhtar et al. 2002; Swaney et al. 2003). There was development of procedure in which pine wood chips were impregnated with OA solution, heated, and thereafter rened into pulp (Akhtar et al. 2002; Swaney et al. 2003). This pretreatment method saved signicant amount of energy in the mechanical rening process and provided stronger paper products than that of control rened material. Analogous treatments at lower temperatures have been reported for poplar (Populus trichocarpa) by Meyer-Pinson et al. (2004). According to Vehniainen (2006), in count to preserve energy in mechanical rening OA can assist to safeguard bre length. So the results indicate that generation of bre afx oxalate esters or OA itself could provide benets in energy savings and in better quality paper products.

7 Constraints of bio pulping No single organism is ideal for all biopulping applications. Enzymes are catalyst they can be used in mill scale. The organisms of choice must be capable of accomplishing delignication in a reasonable period of time (Breen and Singleton 1999). High moisture content (around 5560%) should be kept in wood chips during the biotreatment step to ensure an optimal colonization and penetration of fungal hyphae. The degree of asepsis should be controlled to ensure a successful wood colonization by the particular fungal strain used depending on its resistance against contamination and ability to compete with the microbial biota existing in the wood chips (Ferraz et al. 2007). Data obtained from a single fungal species or from abundant species considered altogether point to the fact that there is no clear correlation between biopulping efciency and wood weight or component losses. Enzymes are known to be precise, but their action is usually considered to be restricted on wood, due to the relatively high MW. On the other hand, enzymes may be more easily applicable to mill-scale operation. Removal of some minor wood components such as resins or polyphenols (extractives) could be related to the biopulping gain. According to Chen et al. (2010) the main limitations of biological pretreatment process are slow in reaction rate and complexity in process control.

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8 Signicance of biopulping Biopulping, was envisioned as a method for saving energy and making a stronger paper product (Akhtar et al. 1998, 2000) (Table 3). The naturally occurring white rot fungi can alter the plant cell wall structure and provides its recalcitrance against biological attack (Chen et al. 2010). The application of enzymes to wood chips is an attractive alternative way which decreases energy demand in the rening process and to introduce novel functional properties on bers (Maijala et al. 2008). During rening progression of Scots pine, wood chips treated with manganese peroxidase (MnP) and it was found out that specic energy consumption decreased about 11% as compared to that of untreated reference chips, also in the rening of Norway spruce it was 6% less (Maijala et al. 2008). Pretreatment on spruce with fungi resulted in similar energy savings as MnP treatment. Hence MnP treatment seems to be a promising concept for energy savings and ber surface modications (Maijala et al. 2008). Biopulping has the potential to be an environmentally kind means of improving both the economics of pulp production and the quality of pulp produced (Breen and Singleton 1999). Guerra et al. (2003) reported that in cultures of C. subvermispora on soft wood and hardwoods, glucan losses usually are very low up to 90 days biotreatment indicating that cellulose is more resistant to the attack by this fungus. However, component losses represent the elements of wood transformed into carbon dioxide and water or into water soluble compound. Obviously, polysaccharides and lignin depolymerization

occur before the polymers are mineralized and a direct determination of molecular weight distribution of the residual polymers is a better way to evaluate the fungal selectivity during the biodegradation process (Guerra et al. 2003). The a-cellulose degree of polymerization grow weaker with biodegradation time becoming noticeably low from the 30th day of biodegradation (Guerra et al. 2003). During solid-state cultivation on wood, the main oxidative enzyme produced by C. subvermispora is manganese-peroxidase (MnP) (Vicentim and Ferraz 2007; Souza-Cruz et al. 2004) Very intense cleavage of aryl-ether linkages was observed during Eucalyptus grandis biotreatment. In this study, the yield of 4acetoxycinnamyl acetates decreased from 48% in the undecayed control to values as low as 8% in samples biotreated for 15 days in cultures supplemented with corn-steep liquor and Mn2? ions (Vicentim and Ferraz 2007) (Table 2). 8.1 Environmental Since the fungal pretreatment is a biological process, environmental inuence is expected to be minimal. (Antaresti et al. 2005) carried out the study to condense the waste from the pulping process. The effect of using a chemical course (with nitric acid) and a biopulping way (using Fusarium solani) were studied and measured by the percentage of a-cellulose content in bagasse pulp. In chemical approach, the nitric acid concentration and the reaction time were varied. The pulping method was conducted at constant temperature of 102C and the mixture was agitated at 900 rpm (Rodriquez et al. 1996).

Table 3 Benets of wood pretreatment with selected fungi Fungus Physisporinus rivulosus Ceriporiopsis subvermispora Phlebiopsis gigantea Raw material Sterilized wood chips Benets Selective lignin degradation; growth in broad temperature range; less rening energy consumption; reduced wood pitch content Reference Hatakka et al. (2003)

Sterilized wood chips

Wood logs

Selective lignin degradation; reduced rening Fischer et al. (1994), Akhtar energy consumption; decreased wood pitch et al. (2000), Bajpai et al. content; improved chemical pulping (2003) Reduced wood pitch content; superior chemical Behrendt and Blanchette (1997) pulping; lesser rening energy consumption; staining of wood abridged; better debarking

Phanerochates chrysosporium

Fresh, unsterilized wood Reduced energy consumption, decreased pitch Singh and Chen (2008) chips, wood logs content, enhanced pulp quality

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Antaresti et al. (2005) reported that the highest percentage of a -cellulose content in pulp was 79.28%, obtained at the concentration of 3.5% for a reaction time of 3.5 h. At higher concentrations and extending considerable cooking times, the a-cellulose decreased due to the cellulose degradation. In the biopulping process, the incubation temperature was kept at 30C. The highest percentage of a-cellulose was 65.80% obtained at an incubation time of 25 days. When compared to nitric acid pulping, biopulping produce lower yield but uses only a small amount of chemicals without any environmental menance. 8.2 Economical The fungal pretreatment with Phanerochates chrysosporium has been shown to save approximately 30% of energy costs for berizing and rening, paper strength properties have been improved, and pitch content has been reduced (Singh and Chen 2008). The biomechanical pulp bers were stronger than the TMP bers; the amount of bleached softwood pulp in the nal product was reduced (Akhtar et al. 2000). Conclusion can be drawn from results of experiments conducted that steaming the wood chips briey (as short as 15 s) before treatment decontaminates the surface of the chips and allows the fungus to perform effectively. Thus, in biopulping steam exposure eradicates the other miscellaneous sporulating fungi which cause respiratory problems in mill workers (Agbiotech bulletin 2003). This will reduce cost of cooking chemicals and improve the physical properties of bres. Cellulose could be depolymerize by using endocellulases produced by C. subvermispora (Sethuraman et al. 1998; Heidorne et al. 2006). Changes in tensile indexes of Eucalyptus grandis biopulps prepared on laboratory and mill scale has been reported by several workers (Scott et al. 2002; Ferraz et al. 2008) (Table 4). Tensile indexes data
Table 4 Tensile indexes of Eucalyptus grandis biopulps prepared on laboratory and mill scale

from several E. grandis pulps prepared in lab and mill scale indicated that lab-prepared control TMP is very weak as compared with the control TMP prepared on mill scale. This indicates that some ber damage occurs during lab-scale disk rening of untreated wood chips. On the other hand, biotreated samples are soft and rene well even in lab-scale reners, giving good quality bers. When rening is performed in optimized industrial disk reners, high quality bers are obtained even from control wood chips. These results suggest that one area demanding additional research effort is related to the development of appropriate disk designs to take maximal advantage from biotreated samples on mill reners (Ferraz et al. 2008).

9 Conclusions The demand for the wood pulp is expected to increase more in near future, so there will be more stress on pulp and paper industry. A good number of the pulping industries are still using conventional methods i.e., mechanical and chemical pulping. The pulp and paper industry competes in a global marketplace, where energy and material costs determine protability. Manufacturing of pulp uses a lot of chemicals as well electrical energy. Also bleach plant efuent are responsible for the generation of large amount of wastewater which contain high toxicity and colour. Lignin and other degradation products are the most important contributors to environmental pollution. These constraints associated with usual pulping methods can be overcome with the biopulping. The industrial application of biopulping can be successfully established to save chemicals and to augment pulp quality. As biopulping process reduced the cooking time thus consumption of energy decreases and also there is a signicant rise in paper strength.

Pulp samples from E. grandis Lab-prepared 2-stage TMP/RMP Control Lab-prepared 2-stage Bio TMP/RMP Mill-prepared 2-stage TMP/RMP control Mill-prepared 2-stage Bio TMP/RMP Mill-prepared 2-stage CTMP

Tensile index (Nm/g) 5.2 11.3 12 2 11 2 16 3 16 2

CSF (mL) 402 390 472 31 455 26 485 16 409 23

Source: Scott et al. (2002), Ferraz et al. (2008)

Mill-prepared 2-stage Bio CTMP

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The rise in price of wood and high energy demand is a serious concern thus biopulping can be the best alternative for improving pulp technology. Biopulping holds enormous potential in the future of the paper making industry making it viable both economically and environmentally. It might play a key role in maintaining environment unpolluted. Undoubtedly, biopulping is set to transform the paper production to a basis that is more harmonious to the biosphere.
Acknowledgments Authors are thankful to USM for providing the necessary facility for their work.

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