Effective Mild Ethanol-Based Organosolv Pre-Treatment for the Selective Valorization of Polysaccharides and Lignin from Agricultural and Forestry Residues

Florbela Carvalheiro, Luís C. Duarte, Filipa Pires, Vanmira Van-Dúnem, Luís Sanfins, Luísa B. Roseiro and Francisco Gírio
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Florbela Carvalheiro: LNEG-Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia, Unidade de Bioenergia e Biorrefinarias, Estrada do Paço do Lumiar, 22, 1649-038 Lisboa, Portugal
Luís C. Duarte: LNEG-Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia, Unidade de Bioenergia e Biorrefinarias, Estrada do Paço do Lumiar, 22, 1649-038 Lisboa, Portugal
Filipa Pires: LNEG-Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia, Unidade de Bioenergia e Biorrefinarias, Estrada do Paço do Lumiar, 22, 1649-038 Lisboa, Portugal
Vanmira Van-Dúnem: LNEG-Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia, Unidade de Bioenergia e Biorrefinarias, Estrada do Paço do Lumiar, 22, 1649-038 Lisboa, Portugal
Luís Sanfins: LNEG-Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia, Unidade de Bioenergia e Biorrefinarias, Estrada do Paço do Lumiar, 22, 1649-038 Lisboa, Portugal
Luísa B. Roseiro: LNEG-Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia, Unidade de Bioenergia e Biorrefinarias, Estrada do Paço do Lumiar, 22, 1649-038 Lisboa, Portugal
Francisco Gírio: LNEG-Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia, Unidade de Bioenergia e Biorrefinarias, Estrada do Paço do Lumiar, 22, 1649-038 Lisboa, Portugal

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 15, 1-19

Abstract: Organosolv pre-treatments aiming to selectively remove and depolymerise lignin and hemicellulose and yield an easily digestible cellulose fraction are one of the potential options for industrial implementation within the biorefinery concept. However, the use of high temperatures and/or high catalyst concentrations is still hindering its wide adoption. In this work, mild temperature organosolv processes (140 °C) that were either non-catalysed or catalysed with sulphuric or acetic acid were compared to standard similar conditions using ethanol-based organosolv for both wheat straw (WS) and eucalyptus wood residues (ERs) as agricultural and forestry-derived model raw materials, respectively. The experimental results demonstrated that high cellulose purities could be obtained for the catalysed ethanol-based processing of the WS, which resulted in high saccharification yields (>80%), conversely to the non-catalysed process, which only reached values close to 70%. For eucalyptus residues (ERs), the pulp yields obtained were lower than the values obtained for the WS, suggesting that the ERs were a more reactive material. Cellulose purity was higher than that obtained for the corresponding treatment for the WS, with the highest cellulose purity being obtained for the ethanol-based process catalysed with sulphuric acid. Both materials presented high lignin yield recovery in the liquid stream.

Keywords: acetic acid; acid catalysis; biorefinery; enzymatic hydrolysis; eucalyptus residues; glucan-enriched solids; lignin-derived products; lignocellulosic biomass fractionation; organosolv; wheat straw (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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