Degradation of residual lignin in kraft pulp by chemical bleaching is implicated in causing environmental pollution. The use of thermo- and alkali-tolerant bacterial laccases is considered to be important biological alternative to chemical processing. Laccases from Bacillus species have shown promise in this respect but their intracellular/spore bound presence make their industrial application economically unfeasible. We report here on a novel extracellular active thermo-alkali-stable laccase (SN4 laccase) which is active at 90 °C and pH 8.0 using 2,6-dimethoxyphenol as substrate from Bacillus tequilensis SN4. SN4 laccase retained 27 % activity for 5 min at 100 °C and more than 80 % activity for 24 h at 70 °C. The enzyme is also stable at a higher pH (9.0-10.0). Enzyme production was optimized by submerged fermentation. Relatively high yields (18,356 nkats ml-1) of SN4 laccase was obtained in a medium containing 650 μM MnSO4, 350 μM FeSO4, and 3.5 % ethanol. A 764-fold increase in laccase activity was observed under optimal conditions. In addition, reduction in kappa number and increase in brightness of softwood pulp by 28 and 7.6 %, respectively, were observed after treatment with SN4 laccase without a mediator. When N-hydroxybenzotriazole was used as a mediator, the kappa number was decreased to 47 % and brightness was increased to 12 %.
Keywords: Bacillus tequilensis SN4; Extracellular laccase; Pulp biobleaching; Response surface methodology; Thermo-alkali-stable laccase.