Enzymatic and Fungal Treatments on Sugarcane Bagasse for the Production of Mechanical Pulps

Abstract

Crude ligninolytic enzyme extracts from Phanerochaete chrysosporium fungi were applied to sugarcane bagasse, prior to thermomechanical (TMP) and chemithermomechanical pulping (CTMP), and their properties were compared with the normal TMP and CTMP and also with TMP and CTMP pretreated with Ceriporiopsis subvermispora and P. chrysosporium fungi. The sugarcane bagasse was impregnated with the crude enzyme extract containing lignin peroxidase (LiP), manganese peroxidase (MnP), and laccase (Lac). The results show that pretreatment with enzyme crude extract is an advantageous way to produce TMP and CTMP from sugarcane bagasse, as compared with only fungal pretreatment. Enzymatic pretreatments need only hours to enhance pulping and paper properties, compared with the weeks necessary for fungal treatments. Higher pulp yields were obtained compared with the fungal pretreatments. Enzymatic pretreatment reduced the energy consumption in a proportion similar to that of C. subvermispora fungal pretreatment and increased the pulp tensile index compared with the normal TMP and CTMP pulps, although the tensile strength was somewhat lower than that for pulps from C. subvermispora fungal pretreatment before CTMP processing. An advantage of enzymatic pretreatment is that brightness is increased compared with normal TMP and CTMP processes, whereas fungal pretreatments reduce the brightness.

Polypropylene Composites Reinforced with Biodegraded Sugarcane Bagasse Fibers: Static and Dynamic Mechanical Properties

“…The use of fungi for nonwoody plants prior to chemical treatment or mechanical refining has also received attention in recent years [15][16][17] . Ceriporiopsis subvermispora is a white-rot fungi utilized in several papers involving treatment of lignocellulosic materials 8,18,19 .…”

Lignocellulosics as a Renewable Feedstock for Chemical Industry: Chemical Hydrolysis and Pretreatment Processes

“…Taking into account the high energy requirements of milling and the projected rise in the cost of energy, it is likely that mechanical comminution processes with significant energy usage will not be economically feasible [168,303].…”

“…Some white-rot fungi strains from Ceriporiopsis subvermispora, Echinodontium taxodii, and Stereum hirsutum selectively degrade lignin rather than holocellulose [324,[329][330][331], whereas some strains simultaneously degrade cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin [324]. Herbaceous biomasses such as sugarcane bagasse [303,[332][333][334][335][336], corn stover, wheat straw [325,333], Bermuda grass [327], bamboo culms [331], and woody biomass such as beech [337], Prosopis juliflora [325,333], Japanese red pine (Pinus densiflora) [329], Chinese willow, and China-fir [330] have been reported to achieve beneficial outcomes from biological pretreatment.…”

“…RCK-1 pretreatment, as a result, led to less acid use for hydrolysis of cellulose to glucose, higher glucose yield, and lower total phenolic inhibitors. The use of crude ligninolytic enzymes extracted from P. chrysosporium fungi as a pretreatment for thermomechanical pulping (TMP) and CTMP reduced energy consumption by 29% and 17%, respectively [303]. Pretreatment time for crude enzyme pretreatments is only 36 hr compared to two weeks required by fungal pretreatments [303].…”

Effect of Alkali Pectinase Pretreatment on Bagasse Soda-Anthraquinone Pulp

“…Therefore, the direct application of enzymes on the lignocellulosic substrate has been explored. Enzymatic pretreatments can reduce energy consumption (Ramos et al 2004;Maijala et al 2008), enhance conventional mechanical and chemical pulping (Zhao et al 2002), and increase the rate of delignification (Kaur et al 2010).…”