Volume 11 Issue 1

The co-editors of BioResources note the completion of our first ten years. We think that the journal can be judged as a success based on having achieved an impact factor of about 1.4 each year since 2009 and having reached a publication rate of about 700 articles per year. We strive to be a “people’s journal” serving scientists, students, and society. We plan to continue emphasizing editorial pieces and review articles, which supplement our main service of publishing peer-reviewed articles dealing with the science of lignocellulosic materials, chemicals, and their uses. We also support undergraduate scholarship in our academic department, including tuition payment, opportunities for pre-editing work, and support for undergraduates to attend conferences, etc.

Lignocellulosic biomass (LB) is potentially a relatively inexpensive and abundant feedstock for ethanol production. One of the most challenging steps during the lignocellulosic ethanol production is to convert the carbohydrates in LB to the fermentable reducing sugars (FRS) in an economically viable and environmentally friendly way. The acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of LB in ionic liquids (ILs) has provided a promising technical tool to improve upon the traditional FRS production process. Compared to the conventional FRS production process from LB via the acid or enzymatic hydrolysis method, it has many advantages, such as a simplified process, mild reaction conditions, low acid consumption, and low equipment investment. However, there are still some technical challenges that need to be solved regarding its use at an industrial scale, for example, improving its reaction selectivity, developing effective methods to separate the FRS and ILs, and alleviating the negative effect of the remaining ILs in FRS on subsequent ethanol fermentation. This editorial will give a brief discussion about opportunities and challenges of the acid catalyzed hydrolysis of LB in ILs for ethanol production.

Porous cellulose aerogel materials are attracting increasing interest due to their promising potential in multiple fields. In this paper, highly porous and mechanically strong cellulose aerogels were successfully prepared from microcrystalline cellulose and dissolving pulp in ionic liquid BmimCl via a sol–gel polymerization method. The surface morphology and physical properties were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and compression tests, etc. The differences in microstructure, crystalline structure, and mechanical performance of these two kinds of cellulose aerogels were studied and compared. Moreover, the two cellulose aerogels were used as adsorbents to remove dye, oil, and organic solvents. The kinetics and equilibrium capacity were investigated. Results indicate that the cellulose aerogels with high degrees of polymerization have much better mechanical strength and adsorption properties than the cellulose aerogels with low degrees of polymerization.

Increased public scrutiny and governmental legislation towards the pulp and paper industries have motivated industrialists and researchers to seek improved bleaching sequences having the potential to minimize pollutants in bleach effluent generated during manufacturing of paper. Discovery of toxic chlorinated organics and their components in bleach effluents has focused people’s attention towards finding alternative ways of bleaching pulp. Use of enzymes at industrial scale has become well known, but still it is not clear whether the sequence of enzymatic treatment most often employed in industrial applications represents the best overall practice. The point of enzyme addition is critically important to maximize benefits. Many publications describe the use of an enzyme treatment stage before the use of chemicals in a bleaching process. Insufficient attention has been paid to the alternatives of adding an enzyme in between chemical bleaching agents (intermediate) or at the end of the bleaching process.

In the present work, enzymatic/mild acidolysis lignin (EMAL) was isolated from the raw material Cunninghamia lanceolata, and hydrothermal depolymerization was carried out in subcritical water (from 250 to 350 °C) using a cylindrical autoclave. The results revealed that the lowest yield of solid residue and highest liquid product yield were achieved at 325 °C. The liquid products were primarily composed of phenolic monomers and oligomers. As the reaction temperature increased, repolymerization of the liquid products and dehydrogenation and deoxidation of the solid residues occurred. The high heating value (HHV) of the residues was larger than that of the EMAL, and it reached a maximal level at 275 °C. Hydrothermal depolymerization and condensation reactions took place simultaneously even under mild conditions (250 °C). Carbonization of the EMAL was remarkable when the reaction temperature reached 325 °C.

The load-bearing capacity of joints using thin steel elements for wood buildings was considered. Six variants of a specific type of joint consisting of two wood elements in a ceiling structure joined by steel angles were experimentally tested. These variants differed in utilization of nails as well as screws (of various lengths) for wood. Another observed factor was the percentage of holes filled in the angles. In this work the percentage of holes filled means how many of the holes in the steel angles were filled by nails/screws. The evaluation characteristic was the maximum loading force at the breaking point. Based on the results, a set of recommendations for designing a specific type of joint with steel angles was formulated. The results showed that during loading of the joints, tensile stresses occur in the direction perpendicular to the fibers, which causes a failure of the wood parts of the joints.

Woody biomass is an abundant, renewable energy source. Forest residue is the fraction remaining after harvest and the outtake of wood timber, including tree tops and bark. Compared with the wood portion, bark has a wide variation of ash content. Wood usually has a relatively low ash content, while bark has considerably higher ash content, which may generate clinker in the furnace and thereby tends to create more demand for maintenance. High ash content also generates more particulate emissions. Different types of bark were studied in the present work in terms of their effect on energy content, moisture, and ash content. The ash content of three different samples (Norway spruce, birch, and European beech) were measured at 550 and 815 °C. The results showed the impact of bark content on all parameters, in particular the calorific value and ash content. The ash content increased with increasing bark content. The addition of 1% bark content resulted in increases of ash content in the range 0.033 to 0.044%.

Many herbaceous lignocelluloses suitable for ethanol production have high extractives contents, such as some straws and corn stover. The high extractives content might affect pretreatment or enzymatic hydrolysis. In this study, extractives were removed from corn stover, and then extractives-free corn stover and ordinary corn stover were respectively pretreated using a liquid hot water (LHW) method and hydrolyzed to evaluate the effect of extractives on cellulose digestibility. Extractives-free corn stover presented higher cellulose digestibility than ordinary corn stover after the same pretreatment conditions. A total of 87.3% of cellulose was digested in extractives-free corn stover, compared to 71.0% in ordinary corn stover, after pretreatment at 200 °C for 20 min. It is speculated that some water-soluble extractives could buffer H+ ions from water and acetic acid during LHW pretreatment process, reducing xylan removal. Another reason for these results might be that some extractives could condense on corn stover after LHW pretreatment, which hinders cellulose hydrolysis.

This paper describes a simple rapid staining microcolorimetric method for analytical fibre material identification using colour vectors of stained fibre material photography. The number of morphological characteristics (nM), number of stains (nS), colour information dimensionality (nDC), and picture elementary points number (npx) can play a key role in distinguishing fibre materials, correct identification, discriminatory power dP (%), and efficacy. Experiments were performed to achieve the most accurate results with a minimum volume of data; the dimensionality reduction was made experimentally by setting nM = 0, nS = 1, nDC <1, 3>, and the effect of number of pixels on the dP (%) was measured. The correct identification was achieved by less than 100 pixels when using 2 colour vectors, and by less than 50 pixels when using 3 colour vectors: R, G, and B. The real area of the pixels used for correct identification was less than 0.1 mm2 in the used model system of the cellulose fibre materials.

Pre-hydrolysis is an important step in the poplar residual slab dissolving pulp production process, as it aids in removing as much hemicellulose as possible from the cellulose fibers. In the pre-hydrolysis process, a portion of lignin also dissolves, along with the hemicelluloses. The presence of lignin in prehydrolysis liquor (PHL) is detrimental to the separation of xylo-oligosaccharide from the prehydrolysis liquor. This study researched lignin removal from PHL with three coagulating agents, namely aluminum sulfate (alum), polyaluminum chloride (PAC), and polydiallyldimethyl ammonium chloride (pDADMAC). It was found that the removal of lignin increased as the dosage of the alum, PAC, and pDADMAC increased. Additionally, the highest retention of xylo-oligosaccharide in the PHL occurred at dosages of 120 mg/L for alum and 160 mg/L for PAC and pDADMAC. The contents of the other oligosaccharides in PHL fluctuated irregularly with increasing dosages of the alum, PAC, and pDADMAC.