DECOMPOSITION OF NON–WOODY FIBRE FROM NAPIER GRASS BY INDIGENOUS ISOLATE POTENTIAL FOR BIOPULPING PROCESS

Abstract

Biopulping of a non-woody fiber could be a sustainable process towards a greener and safer process compared to the conventional pulping methods. Current research is focused on isolation of potential bacterial from soil for biopulping activity. Thirty two isolates were successfully recovered in the first stage of isolation on a nutrient agar supplemented with the non-woody fiber. Further isolation was performed by culturing the 32 isolates in a broth containing 1% of non-woody fiber at 45 ± 5°C. Only five isolates (isolate 5, 7, 8, 27 and 28) were able to grow under the aforementioned condition. Among the five isolates, isolate 28 showed the highest percentage of decomposition which was 74.8%. The isolate was identified as a Gram negative bacteria, had a coccus shaped and occurred in a streptococci of cells arrangement. In addition, the environmental factors that may affect the decomposition of the nonwoody fiber such as pH and raw material size were examined. It was found that pH in the range did not significantly affect the decomposition ability of the bacteria. But the size of raw material of 0.5 cm may assist in improving the decomposition ability compared to the 2 cm and 1 cm sizes.