Kajian Penggunaan Selulosa Mikrobial Sebagai Bahan Baku Pembuatan kertas

Abstract

Paper refers to thin mass of felted sheet separated from water suspension of prevalently cellulose-based pulp fiber on a fine screen, followed by sheet forming, compression, drying and finishing action. Paper and paper products are widely used as printing and writing media, packaging material and other varieties of functions. World consumption of paper steadily increases at 3,05 % per year, while in Indonesia the yearly consumption in the last five years (i.e 2002 – 2006) recorded an average increase at 2,8%. Consequently, this calls for intensive use of cellulose-based materials. In general, the raw material for pulp and paper comes from woods, due to their more secured continuity-supply and favorable properties or characteristic. Conversely, this situation can enchanc the rate of forest destruction (deforestation) from which the woods are obtained. Nowadays, deforestation rate tends to increase uncontrollably along with increasing-demand for woods and their derived products, including pulp and paper. Such alarming deforestation can exert negative impacts on the environment, among which is global warming. The global warming further will affect climate change radically and natural disasters (e.g. floods, erosion, storms, and hurricanes). The use of wood for pulp, paper, and other celullose based products reveals several weaknesses, among others, high energy consumption and catastrophic environmental pollution caused by the use of chemical substances for the delignification (lignin dissolution) process during wood pulping, which harmful to human beings and other living creatures. Another set back is the low productivity of wood for the supply of cellulose (i.e. polymer containing glucose units) compared to the cutting rotation of the tree growth to provide wood, which takes a long time and bring about concerns related to environmental issues. This unfavorable situation demand the seeking of other cellulose alternatives, which can expectedly substitute for or lessen the reliance on wood materials for pulp and paper manufacturing. One of the favorable alternatives is the microbial cellulose synthesized biologically from particular biomass materials potential as glucose source, using particular types of microorganisms (i.e. bacteria) among other Acetobacter species. The microbial cellulose afford remarkable advantage over the conventional wood derived sellulose, such as high level purity (free from lignin and hemicellulose), the easy isolation of the process, and exerting high cellulose crystallinity as well as its productivity. This entails an immense potency of raw material for microbial cellulose in an attempt to overcome the difficulty in procuring the conventional wood based cellulose materials for pulp and paper.