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SCMP Reporter

HONG Kong's huge stacks of waste paper could eventually end up as wine and beer if a University of Science and Technology project is successful.

  Dr Raymond Wong Wan-keung has applied for $4.5 million from the Industry Department for a three-year project to develop a cheap, biochemical method of breaking down waste paper into sugar which can be fermented to produce alcohol.

  The territory churns out 900 tonnes of waste paper each day, which currently goes into precious landfill space. Dr Wong says the project, if successful, will be ''good for biotechnology and good for the environment''.

   So far, Dr Wong has been able to break down filter paper in a test tube.

   If approved, the money will be used to hire four people and get equipment to build the process to laboratory scale, after which he hopes the Hong Kong Institute of Biotechnology at the Chinese University will help him scale it up to production quantities.

  Cellulose, the main component of paper, is broken down naturally by an enzyme composite called cellulase.

   Natural cellulase, extracted from wood-eating fungi, is not as active as a laboratory-made version, so would have to be bought in huge quantities and would be too expensive for industrial use.

   Cellulase is composed of three enzymes. In Dr Wong's laboratory process, the three genes that code for the enzymes are cloned and transferred into yeast, which multiplies rapidly to produce huge quantities of cellulase.

  The research team has so far managed to get two of the three genes into yeast and is working on the third.

  The group also has a $180,000 grant from Caterly Technology, a Hong Kong firm that makes a new cellulose-based material.

   Caterly is seeking a patent for the material, which does not go mushy like current paper plates and bowls are prone to do, but is biodegradable.

   Caterly wants to find out how easily the material breaks down, while Dr Wong's team can test its cellulose-eating enzyme. The link ''is of mutual benefit to us'', says Dr Wong.



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