Research Articles

Two agricultural biomass materials, namely wheat straw and sugarcane bagasse, were pretreated with NaOH and then used as substrates for enzymatic saccharification. After the pretreatment, the increase in glucan content and the decrease in lignin content were more than 65%, while less than 20% increase occurred in xylan content. The enzymatic saccharification was initiated with solid loading 9% (w/v), and then 8%, 7% and 6% (w/v) solid was fed at 8, 24, and 48 h, respectively. The final enzyme solid loading was 9.60 FPU/g solid and 30% (w/v), respectively. At 144 h, the produced glucose, xylose, and reducing sugar concentrations for wheat straw were 81.88, 20.30, and 115.25 g/L, respectively, and for sugarcane bagasse they were 125.97, 8.66, and 169.50 g/L, respectively. The final conversions of wheat straw and sugarcane bagasse were 34.57% and 50.85%, respectively. SEM images showed that the surface structure of the two materials changed a lot via alkali-pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis. In summary, a high concentration sugar is produced from the two agricultural biomass materials by high solid and low enzyme loading. Compared to wheat straw, sugarcane bagasse is more suitable for use in sugar production.

Three commercial starches were evaluated in conjunction with colloidal silica and flocculant to retain precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) filler. A unique feature of this study was the fact that the filler was pre-flocculated by a portion of starch (2kg starch/t PCC) and the rest of the starch was added after the flocculant but before the silica. The pulp used was peroxide bleached thermo-mechanical pulp (TMP). A statistical design methodology was employed and empirical process models were constructed based on the analysis of variance (ANOVA) results. The models were then employed to predict the retention and drainage. It was found that the high-charged cationic starch gave the highest retention and best drainage performance. The high-charged cationic starch S880 also resulted in stronger paper, probably because of the larger and stronger flocs produced and its higher affinity with the fiber and fines. Finally, pre-flocculation was found to provide stronger paper compared with a conventional starch/retention aid addition sequence.

Water-soluble hemicelluloses and eight alkali-soluble hemicelluloses were fractionated from bamboo (Phyllostachys pubescens Mazel) culm with hot distilled water, 2% NaOH, 2% KOH, 5% NaOH, and 5% KOH aqueous solution. The chemical structures, as analyzed employing FTIR spectrometry, suggested that all the hemicelluloses were likely to be comprised of arabinoxylans associated with lignin more or less. Thermal analysis for hemicelluloses was carried out using TG-DTG method under nitrogen atmosphere at a heating rate of 10 °C/min, and first-order kinetics was evaluated. The major pyrolysis was focused at 187-346 °C, with activation energy ranging from 23.77 to 45.02 kJ/mol. The alkali-soluble fractions, being soluble in solution only at pH higher than 5.5, presented lower thermal stability and higher values of activation energy and pre-exponential factor than the alkali-soluble fractions remaining soluble in alkaline solution at pH lower than 5.5 and insoluble in ethanol. The chemical property of the hemicellulose fractions may greatly influence the thermal characteristics.

The effects on sugar yields of acid concentration, temperature, and time in the first (decrystallization) stage of a two-stage concentrated sulfuric acid hydrolysis of softwood (Scots pine) and hardwood (aspen) were investigated. The study focused on the multi-variable effects of the decrystallization stage and applied a statistical modeling with Central Composite Face (CCF) design of experiment to systematically study and simulate the effect of decrystallization reaction conditions on hydrolysis products and degradation products. The models were statistically significant and showed that for both aspen and pine, the reaction temperature and acid concentration were the most influential variables on monosaccharides and total sugar yields compared to the reaction time. The interaction between temperature and acid concentration was the most important for both species. The sugar degradation products were much influenced by the decrystallization temperature on both aspen and pine. The models were validated by a test-set and showed a good agreement between the experimental and predicted values. The optimum predicted total sugar yields were 56 g / 100 g d.w for aspen (74% theoretical) and 64 g / 100 g d.w for pine (91% theoretical).

Paulownia Tomentosa was pretreated by steam explosion. The cellulase complex NS 50013 and the β-glucosidase NS 50010 of Novozymes AS were used for the enzymatic conversion of cellulose to glucose. The kinetics of enzyme conversion was studied using the exponential kinetic equation valid for processes taking place at uniformly inhomogeneous surfaces. The kinetic coefficient of inhomogeneity accounts for the energy and entropy inhomogeneity of the system and depends on the temperature. It was established that both the activation energy and the pre-exponential factor increase simultaneously with increasing of conversion degree. A compensation effect between pre-exponential factor and activation energy was observed. The energetic hindrances established cannot be completely compensated by the positive effect of the pre-exponential factor increase. Hence, the activation energy has a determining influence on how quickly the rate of hydrolysis decreases.

In this study three different ways of applying ultrasound for the production of nanocellulose from native cellulose were explored. In the first option bleached hardwood kraft pulp was oxidized with the ultrasound (US) assisted TEMPO/NaBr/NaOCl-system (US-TEMPO-system) followed by mechanical separation of nanocellulose. The pulp oxidized by the US-TEMPO-system had higher carboxyls content and ca. 10% increase in nanocellulose yield when compared to the TEMPO-system without sono catalysis. In the second option ultrasound pretreated pulp was oxidized using the TEMPO-system. Although there was no gain in carboxyls content in this process versus the oxidation with TEMPO-system without ultrasound treatment, a higher degree of fibrillation was obtained after ultrasound treatment. In the third case the TEMPO oxidized pulp was subjected to mechanical and ultrasound treatments for nanocellulose production. Under similar treatment time the subsequent ultrasound treatment achieved higher nanocellulose yield than the subsequent mechanical treatment. However, in comparison, the ultrasound treated nanocellulose had lower Rheometer Stresstech viscosity. Furthermore, it was observed that cellulose nanofibrils produced by ultrasound treatment were slightly thinner compared to those produced using the mechanical method.

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of some boron compounds, which have fire retardant properties, as well as melamine-urea-formaldehyde (MUF) resins having different melamine contents (10%, 15%, and 20%) on some physical and mechanical properties of medium density fiberboard (MDF) panels. It was found that the water absorption (WA) and thickness swelling (TS) of MDF panels increased depending on types and concentrations of boron compounds. However, the WA and TS values of MDF panels decreased with increasing melamine content in MUF resins. It was also found that the modulus of rupture (MOR) and internal bond strength (IB) of MDF panels showed different trends depending on the experimental parameters. Boron compounds showed some negative effects on the MOR and IB values. However, these effects decreased with increasing melamine content in MUF resins. The best results were obtained in MDF panels manufactured with an MUF resin having 20% melamine content. Consequently, increasing melamine content in MUF resins showed positive effects on some properties of MDF panels.

A tung oil (TO) based monomer for rigid thermosetting polymer was synthesized, characterized, and copolymerized with styrene in this study. Tung oil was alcoholyzed with pentaerythritol (PER) to get tung oil pentaerythritol alcoholysis products (TOPER), and the optimized conditions were explored according to the yields of TOPER analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The resulting alcoholysis products were maleinated to form tung oil maleate half ester (TOPERMA), and the reaction conditions were determined by monitoring the reaction extents of TOPER and maleic anhydride (MA) with 1HNMR spectroscopy. The TO alcoholysis and maleinization reaction products were characterized by IR, 1HNMR, and electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) techniques. At last, the TOPERMA mixture was cured with styrene (St), and the initiator tert-butyl peroxy benzoate (TPB). Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was employed to characterize the curing process. Mechanical properties of the cured TOPERMA/St resin further confirmed the best procedure for the maleinization reaction. The loading of TO reached about 30% weight of the resulting thermosetting polymer. This promising material from renewable resources can be a potential substitution for petroleum products when used as sheet molding compounds.

The potential use of kapok fiber for pulping and papermaking has been investigated. The kapok fibers were cooked using the optimal dosage of sodium hydroxide determined from the experiments. Then, the pulp was refined with two passes using a disc refiner and mixed with commercial hardwood pulp and/or softwood pulp at different blend ratios to make papers. It was found that addition of the kapok pulp to the mixed pulps improved the tensile and burst strengths of the sheets but decreased the tear resistance and elongation. Water repellency of the sheets prepared from the kapok pulp mixed with the commercial pulps was also improved. These results indicate that kapok fiber can be a quality pulp source for papermaking, especially for packaging paper requiring strength and water repellency.

Nowadays, the discovery of lignocellulolytic microorganisms that are better adapted to operational conditions while exhibiting the strong degrading activities is highly desired for successful lignocellulose biotransformation processes. In this study, microorganisms were isolated from lignocellulose-rich composting materials by selective methods. A screening of isolates known to have lignocellulolytic abilities was performed using several tests. Seven microorganisms showed ligninolytic potential and were subjected for further analysis according to their degrading activity. The fungus Pseudallescheriaangusta MF4 demonstrated high decolorization rates for three aromatic dyes: Poly R-478, Poly S-119, and Remazol Brilliant Blue R. In addition, the fungus showed a high production rate of ligninolytic enzymes in the presence of inducers. This fungus achieved the highest values of growth after 21 days of incubation on sawdust without any additional nutrients. Owing to its proven ligninolytic activity and capability of growing on a lignocellulosic substrate, the application of this isolate could be of interest in different biotechnological applications, particularly in biological treatment of wood fibres in order to improve the production of wood-based composites.