[minecaust]

I'm definitely not an organic chemist, so have mercy! I'm doing some mycology research, and it happened to cross paths with organic chemistry.

Fungi mycelia excrete enzymes to decay a substrate, thus allowing them to grow and fruit. However, my hypothesis is that if you decay a substrate synthetically before introducing it to a fungus, it will grow faster with larger yields per pound of substrate. There should also be much less waste.

My question is, what would be the cheapest and fastest process to break down wood? I've thought about using acids, but the problem is that there are salts left behind after neutralization, which are bad for fungi.

I assume enzymes would be the best option. Perhaps individual rounds of cellulase, Hemicellulases, and Laccases?

[MOTOBALL]

Whichever method chemical/ enzymatic, and I suspect that the latter is better for your purpose, I would suggest that you increase the surface area of your wood to as high as possible.
e.g., Convert to sawdust or a mash of wood pulp in water.
Even paper is only dried wood-pulp, albeit chemically treated for any particular use.

Good Luck with the project and please give us an update on your progress.

Regards,
Motoball

[MOTOBALL]

You might also read some of the literature of conservation of wooden archaeological pieces, since the object is to halt the degradation processes which have to be understood in order to prevent.

Motoball