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Process and composition for preparing a lignocellulose-based product, and the product obtained by the processRelated Patent Categories: Paper Making And Fiber Liberation, Processes Of Chemical Liberation, Recovery Or Purification Of Natural Cellulose Or Fibrous Material, Treatment With Particular Chemical, OrganicProcess and composition for preparing a lignocellulose-based product, and the product obtained by the process description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20050257905, Process and composition for preparing a lignocellulose-based product, and the product obtained by the process. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS [0001] The present application is a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/129,366, filed on May 3, 2002, which is a National Phase of PCT Application No. PCT/IL00/00665, filed on Oct. 19, 2000, which claims the benefit under .sctn.119(e) of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/164,140, filed on Nov. 8, 1999, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/166,389, filed on Nov. 18, 1999. FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention provides a process and compositions for producing a lignocellulose-based product, e.g., fiber board, such as hardboard or medium-density fiber board ("MDF"), particle board, plywood, paper or paperboard (such as cardboard and linerboard), from an appropriate lignocellulosic starting material, such as wood fiber or vegetable fiber, having an enzyme adhered thereto via a cellulose binding peptide, which enzyme is capable of catalyzing the oxidation of phenolic groups of a phenolic polymer which may form an integral part of the lignocellulosic starting material, e.g., lignin, in the presence of an oxidizing agent and optionally in the presence of additional lignocellulosic starting material devoid of the enzyme, e.g., recycled fibers. [0003] The use of the process of the invention confers improved mechanical properties on lignocellulose-based products prepared thereby, especially paper products such as liner board, cardboard and corrugated board. [0004] Lignocellulose-based products prepared from lignocellulosic starting materials, notably products manufactured starting from vegetable fiber or wood fiber prepared by mechanical or mechanical/chemical procedures (the latter often being denoted "semi-chemical" procedures), or by a chemical procedure without bleaching, or from wood particles (wood "chips", flakes and the like), are indispensable everyday materials. [0005] Some of the most familiar types of such products include paper for writing or printing, cardboard, corrugated cardboard, fiber board (e.g. "hardboard"), and particle board. [0006] Virtually all grades of paper, cardboard and the like are produced from aqueous pulp slurry. Typically, the pulp is suspended in water, mixed with various additives and then passed to equipment in which the paper, cardboard etc. is formed, pressed and dried. Irrespective of whether mechanically produced pulp (hereafter denoted "mechanical pulp"), semi-chemically produced pulp (hereafter denoted "semi-chemical pulp"), unbleached chemical pulp or pulp made from recycled fibers (i.e., pulp prepared from recycled fibers, rags and the like) is employed, it is often necessary to add various strengthening agents to the pulp in order to obtain an end product having adequate mechanical properties. [0007] In the case of paper and board for use in packaging and the like, the tensile strength and tear strength under dry and wet conditions are of primary importance; moreover, notably in the case of certain grades of cardboard (e.g., so-called unbleached board for the manufacture of corrugated cardboard boxes for packaging, transport and the like), the compression strength of the material is often also an important factor. Among the strengthening agents used today there are a number of environmentally undesirable substances which it would be desirable to replace by more environmentally acceptable materials. As examples hereof may be mentioned epichlorohydrin, urea-formaldehyde and melamine-formaldehyde. [0008] In the case of "traditional" lignocellulose-based composites for use in building construction, flooring, cladding, furniture, packaging and the like, such as hardboard (which is normally made from wood fibers produced by mechanical or semi-chemical means or by so-called "steam explosion") and particle board (which is made from relatively coarse wood particles, fragments or "chips"), binding of the wood fibers or particles to give a coherent mass exhibiting satisfactory strength properties can be achieved using a process in which the fibers/particles are treated--optionally in a mixture with one or more "extenders", such as lignosulfonates and/or kraft lignin--with synthetic adhesives (typically adhesives of the urea-formaldehyde, phenol-formaldehyde or isocyanate type) and then pressed into the desired form (boards, sheets, panels etc.) with the application of heat. [0009] The use of synthetic adhesives of the above-mentioned types in the production of wood products is, however, generally undesirable from an environmental and/or safety point of view, since many such adhesives are directly toxic--and therefore require special handling precautions--and/or can at a later stage give rise to release of toxic and/or environmentally harmful substances; thus, for example, the release of formaldehyde from certain cured formaldehyde-based adhesives (used as binders in, e.g., particle board and the like) has been demonstrated. [0010] In the light of the drawbacks associated with the use of synthetic adhesives as binders in the manufacture of lignocellulose-based products, considerable effort has been devoted in recent years to the development of binder systems and binding processes which are more acceptable from an environmental and toxicity point of view, and relevant patent literature in this respect includes the following: [0011] EP 0 433 258 A1 discloses a procedure for the production of mechanical pulp from a fibrous product using a chemical and/or enzymatic treatment in which a "binding agent" is linked with the lignin in the fibrous product via the formation of radicals on the lignin part of the fibrous product. This document mentions "hydrocarbonates", such as cationic starch, and/or proteins as examples of suitable binding agents. As examples of suitable enzymes are mentioned laccase, lignin peroxidase and manganese peroxidase, and as examples of suitable chemical agents are mentioned hydrogen peroxide with ferro ions, chlorine dioxide, ozone, and mixtures thereof. [0012] EP 0 565 109 A1 discloses a method for achieving binding of mechanically produced wood fragments via activation of the lignin in the middle lamella of the wood cells by incubation with phenol-oxidizing enzymes. The use of a separate binder is thus avoided by this method. [0013] U.S. Pat. No. 4,432,921 describes a process for producing a binder for wood products from a phenolic compound having phenolic groups, and the process in question involves treating the phenolic compound with enzymes to activate and oxidatively polymerize the phenolic compound, thereby converting it into the binder. The only phenolic compounds which are specifically mentioned in this document, or employed in the working examples given therein, are lignin sulfonates, and a main purpose of the invention described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,432,921 is the economic exploitation of so-called "sulfite spent liquor", which is a liquid waste product produced in large quantities through the operation of the widely-used sulfite process for the production of chemical pulp, and which contains lignin sulfonates. [0014] With respect to the use of lignin sulfonates--in particular in the form of sulfite spent liquor--as phenolic polymers in systems/processes for binding wood products (as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,432,921), the following comments are appropriate: (i) subsequent work (see H. H. Nimz in Wood Adhesives, Chemistry and Technology, Marcel Dekker, New York and Basel 1983, pp. 247-288), and A Haars et al. in Adhesives from Renewable Resources, ACS Symposium Series 385, American Chemical Society 1989, pp. 126-134) has demonstrated that by comparison with the amounts of "traditional" synthetic adhesives which are required in the manufacture of wood-based boards, very large amounts of lignin sulfonates are required in order to achieve comparable strength properties; (ii) the pressing time required when pressing wood-based board products prepared using lignin sulfonate binders has been found to be very long, see E. Roffael and B. Dix, Holz als Roh-und Werkstoff 49 (1991) 199-205; (iii) lignin sulfonates available on a commercial scale are generally very impure and of very variable quality, see J. L. Philippou, Journal of Wood Chemistry and Technology 1(2) (1981) 199-227; (iv) the very dark color of spent sulfite liquor renders it unsuited as a source of lignin sulfonates for the production of, e.g., paper products (such as packaging paper, linerboard or unbleached board for cardboard boxes and the like) having acceptable color properties. [0015] U.S. Pat. No. 5,846,788, from which the above background information is derived, and which is incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein, teaches that binding of lignocellulosic materials (vegetable fibers, wood chips, etc.) using a combination of a polysaccharide having at least substituents containing a phenolic hydroxy group (in the following often simply denoted a "phenolic polysaccharide"), an oxidizing agent and an enzyme capable of catalyzing the oxidation of phenolic groups by the oxidizing agent can be employed in the manufacture of lignocellulose-based products exhibiting strength properties at least comparable to, and often significantly better than, those achievable using previously known processes which have attempted to reduce or avoid the use of toxic and/or otherwise harmful substances, such as the processes described in EP 0 433 258 A1, EP 0 565 109 A1 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,432,921. Thus, for example, the amount of binder required to prepare lignocellulose-based products of very satisfactory strength by the process described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,846,788 is generally much lower typically by a factor of about three or more--than the level of binder (based on lignin sulfonate) required to obtain comparable strength properties using the process according to U.S. Pat. No. 4,432,921. The process according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,846,788 can thus not only provide an environmentally attractive alternative to more traditional binding processes employing synthetic adhesives, but it can probably also compete economically with such processes. [0016] However, the process described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,846,788, requires the use of purified enzymes which are expensive materials as is compared to other raw materials and reagents used in the process of manufacturing lignocellulose-based products. [0017] There is thus a widely recognized need for, and it would be highly advantageous to have, a process for producing a lignocellulose-based product, e.g. fiber board, such as hardboard or medium-density fiber board ("MDF"), particle board, plywood, paper or paperboard (such as cardboard and linerboard), from an appropriate lignocellulosic starting material devoid of the above limitation. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0018] According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a process for the manufacture of a lignocellulose product, the process comprising the step of mixing in a reaction medium (i) a phenolic polymer being substituted with a phenolic hydroxy group; (ii) a lignocellulose containing material having immobilized to a cellulosic fraction thereof a fusion polypeptide, the fusion polypeptide including an enzyme being capable of catalyzing the oxidation of phenolic groups and a cellulose binding peptide; and (iii) an oxidizing agent. [0019] According to further features in preferred embodiments of the invention described below, the lignocellulose product is selected from the group consisting of fiber board, particle board, flakeboard, plywood and molded composites. [0020] According to still further features in the described preferred embodiments the lignocellulose product is selected from the group consisting of paper and paperboard. [0021] According to still further features in the described preferred embodiments the lignocellulose containing material is a cell wall preparation derived from a genetically modified or virus infected plant or cultured plant cells expressing the fusion protein. Continue reading about Process and composition for preparing a lignocellulose-based product, and the product obtained by the process... 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