TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - BIOLOGY - Preferred Components: The biomass comprises woody feedstock with mannan content of at least 2 wt.%. Preferred Method: The contacting step is conducted at 45-80 degrees C, preferably 60-70 degrees C.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - BIOTECHNOLOGY - Preparation (Disclosed): The protein endo- beta -mannanase is isolated from Caldanaerobius polysaccharolyticus (ATCC BAA-17). Preferred Composition: The composition further comprises second isolated protein comprising second amino acid sequence chosen from Caldanaerobius polysaccharolyticus endo- beta -mannanase 5A (Man5A) comprising a 1065 amino acid sequence (SEQ ID NO: 27) fully defined in the specification, a long Man5 fragment (Man5ATM1) comprising a 867 amino acid sequence (SEQ ID NO: 28) fully defined in the specification and a short Man5 fragment (Man5ATM2) comprising a 576 amino acid sequence (SEQ ID NO: 29) fully defined in the specification or second isolated protein comprising second amino acid sequence that is at least 95% identical to one amino acid sequence chosen from the above-mentioned sequences. EXAMPLE - Organism Caldanaerobius polysaccharolyticus (ATCC BAA-17) was isolated from waste pile of canning factory and cultured in trypticase-yeast extract glucose medium and DNA was isolated from mid-log cultures and purified with an integrated RNase treatment step. The genome of C.polysaccharolyticus was partially sequenced and DNA sequence corresponding to endo- beta -mannanase 5B (man5B) was amplified using PCR. The man5B amplicon was digested with T4 DNA polymerase exonuclease activity, annealed with similarly digested pET-46b vector and introduced into E.coli strain JM109 by electroporation and amplified using genomic DNA as template. The amplicons were cloned into pGEM-T vector and to facilitate affinity purification of fusion proteins. The plasmid constructs were introduced into E.coli strain BL-21 competent cells by heat shock, and grown overnight in lysogeny broth (LB) agar medium supplemented with ampicillin (100 mu g/mL) and chloramphenicol (50 mu g/mL) at 37 degrees C and the cells were harvested by centrifugation and re-suspended in 30 ml lysis buffer and ruptured by two passages and cell lysate was centrifuged to remove cell debris. The lysate containing recombinant protein was then incubated and centrifuged to obtain endo- beta -mannanase protein.