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Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1 Introduction

The global pulp and paper industry is in physical terms one of the largest industries
in the world. It is dominated by North American (United States and Canada), north-
ern European (Finland, Sweden), and East Asian countries such as Japan. Australasia
and Latin America also have significant pulp and paper industries. Both India and
China are expected to be key in the industry’s growth over the next few years.
World production of paper and paper board totals some 380 million tons. Growth
is most rapid in Asia, thanks mainly to the quick expansion of industry in China.
Asia already accounts for well over a third of total world paper and paperboard
production. In North America, by contrast, production is contracting. Consumption
of paper and paperboard is increasing ever more rapidly in Asia, in China especially.
Asia already accounts for almost 40% of global consumption, while EU and North
America account for about one quarter each. Per capita consumption of paper and
paperboard varies significantly from country to country and regionally. On average,
one person uses about 60 kg of paper a year; the extremes are 300 kg for each US
resident and some 7 kg for each African. Only around 35 kg of paper per person is
consumed in the populous area of Asia. This means that Asian consumption will
continue to grow strongly in the coming years if developments there follow the
precedent of the West. In Finland, per capita consumption of paper and paperboard
is about 200 kg.
The pulp and paper industry plays an important role in the country’s economic
growth. It is highly capital intensive and has been periodically affected by overca-
pacity. It is traditionally known to be a large contributor to environmental pollution
due to its large consumptions of energy and chemicals.
This is a difficult time for the pulp and paper industry. Consumer standards are
high, and manufacturing is competitive. Cost reduction pressures are causing con-
solidation of companies through mergers and acquisitions; many research and
development laboratories are being downsized, closed, or directed toward short-
term objectives and opportunities; and profitability is being constrained by external

P. Bajpai, Biotechnology for Pulp and Paper Processing, 1


DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-1409-4_1, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012
2 1 Introduction

factors including globalization, environmental concerns, and competition. There is


a need to find new ways to use forest resources more efficiently and with fewer
environmental consequences. Emerging technologies based on sustainable use of
renewable resources hold promise for the rejuvenation and growth of the pulp and
paper industry.
Biotechnology has the potential to increase the quality and supply of feedstocks
for pulp and paper, reduce manufacturing costs, and create novel high-value prod-
ucts (Anon 2004, 2005; Mansfield and Esteghlalian 2003; Ojanpera 2004; Viikari
et al. 2006, 2009). Biotechnology is defined as the use of biological organisms/
systems and processes for practical or commercial purposes. In this broad sense,
biotechnology encompasses a diverse array of activities including fermentation,
immobilized cell and enzyme technology, cell and tissue culture and monoclonal
antibody techniques, although in recent years, the term has been increasingly identi-
fied with techniques for genetic transfer and DNA manipulation i.e., genetic engi-
neering. The attractiveness of biotechnology lies in its potential to provide processes/
products where nonbiological processes are impractical, to increase specificity in
reactions, to provide less environmentally deleterious process, to save energy and
by virtue of foregoing to decrease cost. The raw material in forest-based industries
is wood and its components. Thus, possibilities for employing biotechnology in
these industries are numerous since one of the nature’s most important biological
processes is the degradation of lignocellulosic materials to CO2, water and humic
substances. In point of fact, biotechnology has been used in the paper industry for
quite some time (Bajpai 2006). Waste water treatment systems for the removal of
oxygen-demanding substances and suspended solids, fermenting sulfite liquors,
preparing starch for paper sizing have long been part of the industry. Improvement
in fiber supply by the selection of superior trees is still being done by forest product
companies. Even the control of slime and deposits on paper machines can be con-
sidered as aspect of biotechnology. However, within the past several years, biotech-
nologists have sought specific applications for microorganisms/enzymes in the pulp
and paper industry. The growth has been fueled by several factors:
• An improved understanding of the interactions between enzymes and the con-
stituents of pulp and paper processing
• An increased need for the industry to adopt environmentally benign technology
• Development of cost-effective technology for the relevant enzymes
Suitable biological treatments in conjunction with less intensive conventional treatment
could help solve many of the problems of currently used processes. In response to
environmental concerns and regulations, the industry has greatly reduced chlorinated
aromatic by-products that can be formed during pulp bleaching, first by reducing
the amount of residual lignin in pulps and second by turning to other bleaching
agents. An enzyme technology based on microbial xylanases has helped to achieve
this goal by reducing or even eliminating the need for chlorine in the manufacture
of elemental chlorine free (ECF) and totally chlorine free (TCF) printing and writing
paper grades (Bajpai 2004, 2009; Viikari et al. 2002). Enzymes have helped meet
1.1 Introduction 3

Table 1.1 Biotechnology for the pulp and paper industry in different stages of development
Process Status
Bleaching of kraft pulp Commercial scale
Modification of fiber properties for improving beatability Commercial scale
Improvement of pulp drainage Commercial scale
Decreasing vessel picking Commercial scale
Deinking Commercial scale
Stickies control Commercial scale
Starch modification Commercial scale
Removal of pitch in pulp Commercial scale
Slime control in paper manufacture Commercial scale
Production of chemicals or fuels from wastes and waste liquors Commercial scale
Biomechanical pulping Pilot scale
Biochemical pulping Pilot scale
Pulp bleaching with laccase mediator system Pilot scale
Purification of bleach plant effluents Pilot scale
Production of dissolving pulps Pilot scale
Use of enzymes for debarking Laboratory scale
Use of enzymes for retting of flax fibers Pilot scale

environmental goals in other ways as well. By reducing costs involved in deinking,


enzymes have increased the ability of manufacturers to recycle fiber, thereby placing
fewer demands on timber resources. Enzymes have been used commercially to
reduce paper manufacturing costs or improve the product. Lipases can control the
accumulation of pitch during the production of paper from pulps with high resin
content, such as sulfite and mechanical pulps from pine. Enzymes also help remove
contaminants in the recycle stream. They can reduce the accumulation of adhesives
and pitch residues, called stickies, on machines. They can facilitate the deinking of
recycled paper and improve pulp drainage, which is particularly important as the
amount of recycled fiber in the feedstock stream increases. With higher drainage
rates, paper machines are able to operate faster, which again saves capital costs
(Bajpai 1999). Xylanases have saved chemical costs for the industry without inter-
fering with the existing process. This technology has increased the bleaching speed
in both TCF and ECF processes and, in the case of chlorine dioxide bleaching, has
actually increased the throughput of the plant due to debottlenecking at the chlorine
dioxide generator. Developments of this last type are viewed very favorably since
they enable the industry to make better use of its existing capital equipment. Many
other enzyme applications are also possible. These include eliminating caustic
chemicals for cleaning paper machines, enhancing kraft pulping, reducing refining
time, decreasing vessel picking, facilitating retting, selectively removing fiber
components, modifying fiber properties, increasing fiber flexibility, and covalently
linking side chains or functional groups.
Table 1.1 presents the current developmental stages of various biotechnological
approaches for use in pulp and paper industry.
4 1 Introduction

Most of the commercialized biotechnological applications are based on industrially


produced enzymes (Paice and Zhang 2005). Enzymes are mother nature’s catalysts
that drive the chemical reactions that are in all living things. Enzymes have the follow-
ing properties:
– They are effective in very small amounts – a few enzyme molecules will catalyze
thousands of reactions per second.
– They are unchanged and are not consumed in the reaction.
– They reduce the activation energy of a reaction and therefore increase the speed
of reaction.
– They are very specific to a reaction.
– They have a specific pH and temperature range that they are active in.
The fact that enzymes are specific to a certain reaction allows enzymatic prod-
ucts to be tailored to specific needs. The enzymes available presently are more spe-
cific with less side activities, more tolerant with respect to pH and temperature, and
economically more competitive than those in the late 1980s. In the recent years,
there is an increased availability of a whole range of enzymes at reasonable cost.
New enzymes can be made to order, based on genome information for the major
wood-degrading microorganisms now available in the public domain. Another fac-
tor is a concerted research effort by a number of players to develop a cost-effective
portfolio of enzyme-based applications in papermaking. The most important com-
mercialized applications of enzymes in the pulp and paper industry include bleach-
ing, energy saving in refining, removal of stickies and pitch, deinking, improvement
of paper machine runnability by hydrolysis of slimes or extractives, and enhanced
drainage, as well as fiber modification for speciality products (Bajpai 2006). Bio-
based unit operations are usually combined with traditional or new chemical and
mechanical unit operations to fully benefit the performance of enzymes.
Recently there has been much discussion about biorefineries, aimed at improving
the profitability of kraft mills by diversifying the product mix. One idea is to prehy-
drolyze chips to provide a hemicellulose-rich stream as a by-product. Recently, Oji
Paper claimed that hydrolysis of such hemicelluloses by xylanase to give a mixture
of xylooligosaccharides results in a product with therapeutic value (Paice and Zhang
2005). Another by-product is xylitol which is widely used as an artificial food
sweetener. One suggested biorefinery product is fuel ethanol. It is produced by
enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose substrates such as sawdust, followed by fermenta-
tion of the resulting glucose. Although the economics of this process do not cur-
rently compete with fuel ethanol production from starch, there has been a significant
decrease in cellulase manufacturing costs as the result of USDOE.

References

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Anon (2005) Biotechnology for pulp and paper manufacture: from tailor made biocatalysts to mill
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