Preliminary Assessment of the Environmental Benefits of Enzyme Bleaching for Pulp and Paper Making (7 pp)

Abstract

Goal and Background The LCA methodology is used to compare the potential environmental benefits of an emerging biotechnology, enzyme-bleaching, with those of elemental chlorine free (ECF) bleaching, an existing technology that is widely used in paper making. Through the use of biodegradable enzymes to supplement, or eventually to replace, chemicals in the bleaching process to extract lignin, enzyme bleaching processes are aimed to reduce the use of chlorine based bleaching chemicals and to achieve cost savings by circumventing investment into oxygen delignification or ozone bleaching technology.