Alkaline sulfite/anthraquinone pulping of pine wood chips biotreated with Ceriporiopsis subvermispora

Pine wood chips were treated for 30 days with Cemporiopsis subvermispora in 20 dm(3) bioreactors. A typical selective biodelignification was observed. The biotreated wood chips and undecayed controls were subjected to modified alkaline sulfite/anthraquinone (ASA) cooking at 170degreesC or 175degreesC applying varying cooking times ranging from 30 to 270 min. In all cases, the residual lignin content of the pulps prepared from biologically pretreated wood chips was lower than that of the control pulp. With increasing cooking time, however, the differences in kappa number became smaller. Wood chips cooked for a short time required mechanical refining for fiber liberation. A disk-refining step resulted in pulps with low reject content (0.4%) and high screened yield (56-60%). In this case, the use of biotreated wood chips provided pulps with significantly lower kappa numbers than for the control pulp (71 and 83, respectively). The pulp from biologically pretreated wood fibrillated rapidly, reaching 20 degreesSR in only 38 min beating time in a Jokro mill, while the control pulp required 56 min to reach the same beating degree. Although easier to beat, the biopretreated pulps showed tensile and burst indices similar to those of the control samples. However, their tear indices were always lower. Easier delignification after wood biotreatment was not observed for the reactions performed at long cooking times. Oxygen delignification of biotreated and conventional ASA pulps with low kappa numbers reduced kappa number and improved brightness considerably with the biotreated pulps being favored by it better preservation of viscosity. (C) 2004 Society of Chemical Industry.