Is fungal treatment beneficial?

IS FUNGAL TREATMENT OF ASPEN CHIPS BENEFICIAL FOR CTMP? Bruce Sitholé, Marie-Josée Rocheleau, Robin Berlyn, Cyril Heitner, and Larry Allen Paprican, Pointe Claire, Quebec, Canada populus, chips, chemithermomechanical pulping (CTMP), fungi, mechanical properties, physical properties, brightness, extractives, refining, toxicity Is fungal treatment of aspen chips beneficial for chemi-thermomechanical pulping? To answer this question, aspen chips were treated with fungus, seasoned in insulated boxes and then pulped in a pilot-plant refiner. Chemi-thermomechanical pulp (CTMP) from aspen chips treated with a commercially-available fungus Cartapip™ and aged for three weeks, results in CTMP with higher strength properties than CTMP from untreated chips. Such treatment also results in a 13 to 15% savings in refining energy, as has been previously reported in the literature. However, seven weeks of aging after the fungal treatment is detrimental to the strength properties, and requires higher refining energies. On the other hand, pulps made from fungal-treated chips and aged for seven weeks have brightness values that are 7% higher than those of pulps from untreated chips. Although, fungal treatment is known to degrade wood extractives, it nevertheless does not reduce the toxicity of aspen pulping effluents, nor does it decrease the acetone extractives content of the CTMP. Michx.) is a hardwood that is now widely used for pulp production in North America. In kraft pulping, the alkaline conditions do not seem to be able to completely break down some of the wood resin components of aspen . Seasoning, good barking, addition of tall oil in the digester, and addition of surfactants during oxygen delignification are some of the measures that can be used to improve deresination . Another aspect of the use of aspen is the toxicity of its wood leachate . A recent comprehensive Canadian study undertaken to elucidate the nature, strength, and persistence of aspen leachate toxicity