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The effect of steam pretreatment on hydrotropic extraction of hardwood

Olsson, Johanna LU ; Novy, Vera LU ; Galbe, Mats LU ; Kovacs, Krisztina LU and Wallberg, Ola LU orcid (2017) 39th Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals
Abstract
The forest industry is one of Sweden’s most important business areas. As the use of paper is declining the need for this sector to find other alternatives is increasing. An attractive option to meet this demand is the establishment of forest biorefineries. However, economically suitable pretreatment methods for woody biomass, which minimize degradation of the structural carbohydrates and allow the recovery of a structurally unaltered lignin, are still few.

The aim of this project is to separate hardwood into its constituents, cellulose, lignin and hemicelluloses. The method used is a combination of steam explosion and hydrotropic extraction (HEX). The former is applied as a first step to open up the structure of the hardwood, as... (More)
The forest industry is one of Sweden’s most important business areas. As the use of paper is declining the need for this sector to find other alternatives is increasing. An attractive option to meet this demand is the establishment of forest biorefineries. However, economically suitable pretreatment methods for woody biomass, which minimize degradation of the structural carbohydrates and allow the recovery of a structurally unaltered lignin, are still few.

The aim of this project is to separate hardwood into its constituents, cellulose, lignin and hemicelluloses. The method used is a combination of steam explosion and hydrotropic extraction (HEX). The former is applied as a first step to open up the structure of the hardwood, as well as removing the hemicelluloses. Subsequently HEX is used to separate lignin from cellulose. This method is based on the use of a hydrotropic solution. The hydrotrope is an amphiphilic compound, which can form micelles around the lignin and thus increase the solubility of the otherwise insoluble polymer. After HEX lignin with a less altered structure can be recovered.

Preliminary results have shown that approximately 80 % of the xylan can be removed from hardwood during steam explosion. The delignification time during HEX could be decreased to 2 hours, compared to 12 hours reported elsewhere, without any significant change in the composition of the material. In this study, the effect of different steam explosion conditions on the following HEX step will be presented.
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conference name
39th Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals
conference dates
2017-05-01 - 2017-05-04
language
English
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yes
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318fe9d1-aab0-42b8-abde-73b923b02137
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2019-01-14 13:10:28
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2023-08-31 02:59:59
@misc{318fe9d1-aab0-42b8-abde-73b923b02137,
  abstract     = {{The forest industry is one of Sweden’s most important business areas. As the use of paper is declining the need for this sector to find other alternatives is increasing. An attractive option to meet this demand is the establishment of forest biorefineries. However, economically suitable pretreatment methods for woody biomass, which minimize degradation of the structural carbohydrates and allow the recovery of a structurally unaltered lignin, are still few.<br/><br/>The aim of this project is to separate hardwood into its constituents, cellulose, lignin and hemicelluloses. The method used is a combination of steam explosion and hydrotropic extraction (HEX). The former is applied as a first step to open up the structure of the hardwood, as well as removing the hemicelluloses. Subsequently HEX is used to separate lignin from cellulose. This method is based on the use of a hydrotropic solution. The hydrotrope is an amphiphilic compound, which can form micelles around the lignin and thus increase the solubility of the otherwise insoluble polymer. After HEX lignin with a less altered structure can be recovered. <br/><br/>Preliminary results have shown that approximately 80 % of the xylan can be removed from hardwood during steam explosion.  The delignification time during HEX could be decreased to 2 hours, compared to 12 hours reported elsewhere, without any significant change in the composition of the material. In this study, the effect of different steam explosion conditions on the following HEX step will be presented. <br/>}},
  author       = {{Olsson, Johanna and Novy, Vera and Galbe, Mats and Kovacs, Krisztina and Wallberg, Ola}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  title        = {{The effect of steam pretreatment on hydrotropic extraction of hardwood}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}