[HunterGatherer]

I have seen that lye can dissovle wood and various other forms of biomass that humans can't ordinarily digest because of the strong cellulose bonds. Since dissolving enough biomass in a given solution of lye will eliminate its alkinlinity I started to wonder wether or not the remaining broken down sugars would be edible. After reading about wood pulp I have heard it has a caramel smell to it, evidence that edible sugars have been made present. If anyone has knowledge of wood pulp or the paper making process I wonder if decomposing cellulose with lye results in an edible biomass that could be used as animal feed or possible a direct source of human subsistence. I understand the complexity of this question but such answers to such questions are heavily guarded by unnecessarily expensive books on wood pulp chemistry and I am a very broke college student.

[Gerard]

Hi there friend,

sorry but lye solution is a strong basic solution of sodium hypochlorite and  sodium hydroxide....based on my experience with our chemical process industries where we manufacture things like papers,pharmaceuticals and processed food...we soak our wood pulp with lye solution,yes it has a caramel like smell but i think with the sue of lye its better that it the wood pulp is used for paper making even if it is reinsed with plenty of water..this is for safety's sake...
but if you want to have a hydrolyzed paper pulp suitable for animal consumption i have done a self experiment with termmite guts..i mamange to culture some termites and collect their gut juice then i assumed that there are bacterias in this gut juice so i cultured it using the methods for culturing anaerobic bacteria then i used wood pulp as a substrate luckily there was a build up of solids in the test tube so i rinsed it with plenty of water and tried feeding it with to my pet mouse..will the result,,,,they are healthy and they didnt die...i guess its the enzymatic activity of the bacteria that hydrolyzed the strong carbohydrate polymer into simpler sugars...
anyway still i suggest you dont use anything that has contact with very strong corrosive chemicals as a feed just for safetu sake...
thanks....
-artificial student

[nj_bartel]

Very interesting experiment AS.  Come up with it on your own or get the idea somewhere?

[Gerard]

i just obersved that termites eat nothing but wood so i tried to experiment it if they consume other substrate....
the first and second experiment was a failure.
feeding termites with meat....(stupid as you may think it is but hiey its an experiment) and then i feed fruits...(still stupid)
so lastly i tried wood cellulose...

[tungstenworld]

As a child, I remember we used to scrape barks of trees that smelled nice to eat for fun. In particular, I recall sycamore tree very well. I  later worked in a paper making company on industrial training, and found out the pulp is edible before any chemical treatment is done with it.