Preserving and Enhancing Wood Chip Properties During Oceanic Transport, 2000 Pulping / Process & Product Quality Conference Proceedings

P. Isaac, M. K. Morgan--The use of Albinex(TM)C97 (formerly Cartapip® 97, Clariant Corp), a commercial albino strain of the fungus Ophiostoma piliferum, is used to protect Southern Yellow Pine wood chips from discoloration due to blue stain during oceanic transport from the East Coast to the West Coast of North America. The chips are sprayed with the fungal inoculum as they are added to the storage pile at the East Coast port facility. The aggressive growth of the C97 inhibits the growth of other, naturally-occurring deleterious organisms on the chips, especially before and also during oceanic transport. The net result is wood chips that arrive on the West Coast with higher brightness than chips without this treatment. Subsequent use of the treated wood chips in mechanical pulping processes leads to pulp that is brighter than untreated chips, due to the inhibition of the blue stain fungal growth on the pine wood chips. An additional benefit of using this fungal pretreatment technology is lower resin content of the transported wood chips, again due to the action of the commercial fungus.