Trends in pulp and paper biotechnology

摘要

During the last decade new techniques and innovations in biotechnology have been overwhelming. Not only have the new developments in molecular biology made the production of new bulk enzymes economically feasible and enabled the design of improved enzymes, but also allowed us to understand the genetic background of biosynthetic and metabolic routes more thoroughly. The new methods include genomics, proteomics, metabolomics and bioinformatics. In the light of these developments, pulp and paper area should represent a huge market potential for engineering raw materials and biocatalysts. The key questions are, how the new techniques could be applied in the pulp and paper sector, and what the new breakthroughs will be. This book is based on selected papers presented in the 8th International Conference on Biotechnology in the Pulp and Paper Industry. Within the last two decades, this triannual conference has become the major forum for reviewing latest achievements in the field. The need for an international forum was originally recognized by the European Liaison Committee for Pulp and Paper (EUCEPA) in 1980, and the first conference was held in 1981 in Canada. During the last decade, each of these meetings has attracted about 250-300 participants from all over the world. This series of meetings covers both basic and applied sciences in a rather specified area. The basic science of lignocellulose enzymology and plant genetics is covered also in many other meetings, whereas the application of biotechnology in process and product development is uniquely reviewed in the ICBPPI meetings.