Biopulping process design and kinetics

Biopulping is the solid-state fermentation of wood chips as a pretreatment for mechanical pulping processes. The two organisms that are currently of the greatest interest for biopulping are the white-rot fungi, Phanerochaete chrysosporium and Ceriporiopsis subvermispora. P. chrysosporium has been shown to successfully biopulp wood (33% energy savings; 39% improvement in tear index) without the need for sterilization of the wood or nutrient supplementation. Demonstrating the practical and economical feasibility of the biopulping process requires process modeling based on accurate kinetic data. Techniques to monitor dry weight loss and growth rate as functions of time using carbon dioxide production data have been developed. Growth was shown to be linear with time on unsupplemented chips and exponential with time on supplemented chips.