Intensification of pre-treatment and fractionation of agricultural residues

Intensification of pre-treatment and fractionation of agricultural residues

Petroleum industry

Petroleum transportation

Cellulose

Chemical industry

Cost effectiveness

Agricultural robots

Lignin

Agricultural wastes

Agriculture

Crystallinity

Pulp materials

Lignocellulose biomass is a unique renewable and sustainable source that can be used in energy generation, production of transport fuels and in chemical industries to replace petroleum-based resources. However, due to its recalcitrance to chemical and enzyme breakdown, it needs to be pre-treated prior to processing. In this study, ultrasound assisted ozone was used to pre-treat the agricultural processing residues corn cob and spelt husk. Following organosolv fractionation, about 90 % and 94 % of lignin with high purity (95 %) were recovered for corn cob and spelt husk with guaiacyl-syringyl lignin the major fraction from corn cob and guaiacyl lignin from spelt husk respectively. In addition, cellulose pulp of 83.6 % and 85.2 % with 78 % purity were recovered for corn cob and spelt husk respectively with a 19 % decrease in cellulose crystallinity and 17 % decrease in degree of polymerization (DP). Thus, the improved quality separation of biomass components will enhance downstream conversion to value added products thereby improving the sustainability and cost effectiveness of the process. 2020

159

Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification

2021

Ibrahim, Hafsat H.

Bilsborrow, Paul E.

Phan, Anh N.

journalArticle

2552701

10.1016/j.cep.2020.108231