ON THE PRESENT STATE OF BIOTECHNOLOGY IN THE PULP AND PAPER-INDUSTRY

During the last three years the pulp and paper industry has begun to s how a very much higher level of interest in biological methods. In som e sectors biotechnological methods are already being applied, e.g. dea ling with rosin problems in TMP production. In other sectors biotechno logical procedures are not far off being applied in pulp and paper pro duction. Among these is the enzyme-aided bleaching of pulps. The biolo gical pre-treatment of chips, for saving energy in TMP-production, als o has led to such encouraging results, that a practical application se ems well within range. Without wide knowledge of the basics of the bio logical degradation of timber it would not have been possible to intro duce biotechnology so speedily, although there exist even now large ga ps in our knowledge, for instance in the field of biological degradati on of lignin. For this reason the application of lignin degrading enzy mes in the pulp and paper industry is unlikely to take place in the ne ar future.