Volume 5 Issue 3

This paper reports results concerning characterization and improvement of biological quality of beechwood prehydrolysate in order to adapt the Candida Scottii yeast to this nutritive medium. Some difficult aspects caused by the presence of lignin compounds in the prehydrolysate are mentioned. Studies carried out also made it possible to evaluate yeasts as regards the chemical composition and their nutritive value, tested in case of a mixed fodder used for chicken breeding.

This study was carried out to identify an appropriate alkaline pulping condition for Malaysia cultivated kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.). The chemical composition of the kenaf bast and core fibers, and also whole stalk with different growing time were examined prior to pulping attempts. The results of various soda-AQ pulping showed that the degree of carbohydrate degradation and delignification increased with the increase of active alkali and cooking temperature, but decreased with the increase of liquor to material (L:M) ratio. The most satisfactory properties of pulp and handsheets from bast could be attained by employing soda-AQ pulping with 19.4% active alkali, 0.10% AQ, and L:M ratio of 7:1 cooked for 2 hours at 160˚C. Besides, it was also found that a mild alkaline pre-impregnation prior pulping improved the pulp viscosity and handsheets’ strength properties, especially the tensile index and folding endurance effectively. Moreover, among the three alkaline pulping processes—kraft, kraft-AQ, and soda-AQ—the results of pulp and handsheet properties showed that the soda-AQ pulp was comparable or even slightly of higher quality than the kraft pulps. Between the unbeaten bast and core soda-AQ handsheets, the strength properties of the core were higher than the bast, as the thin-walled core fibers exhibited much better conformability than the thick-walled bast fibers.

Forest industries look for multiple utilizations for their timber production. In Brazil, the genus Eucalyptus has a great potential for solid wood products; however, only a small amount of Eucalyptus is used as sawn timber. About 50% of the log volume ends up as waste during mechanical processing, resulting in serious economic and environmental problems. In most cases, such residue is discarded at random or used as fuel, and in this context the sustainable management of processing industrial waste is an urgent necessity. Parallel to this, Eucalyptus has not been employed for small wooden object (SWO) production. Hence, the aim of this work was to evaluate the performance of small wooden objects produced with Eucalyptus urophylla, E. camaldulensis, and E. grandis waste from sawmilling. Brazilian craftsmen manufactured SWOs with Eucalyptus, and these crafted objects were presented at exhibits and trade fairs for assessment. The proposed small wooden objects made with Eucalyptus residues exhibited satisfactory performance and achieved excellent acceptance by the visitors. This work gave evidence that the use of sawmill waste as raw material for small wooden object manufacture has potential to generate income for economically underprivileged communities near to a plantation.

The bending moment capacity was studied under the diagonal tensile and compression loadings of miter corner joints with dovetail fitting in frames made with medium density fiberboard (MDF). The influence of the type of adhesive in the joints with dovetail fitting on bending moment capacity under diagonal tensile and compression loading were considered, and the joints without adhesive were compared. A total of 80 each miter frame corner joint specimens with dovetail fitting were made. Polyvinyl acetate (PVAc), polyurethane (PU), and cyanoacrylate (CA) adhesives were used, and 20 specimens were prepared without adhesive (WA) with dovetail fitting. MDF was used as a frame material, as in normal practice. The specimens were subjected to diagonal tensile and compression loadings in accordance with ASTM-D 143-94. The data were analyzed statistically. The highest bending moment capacity under diagonal tensile loading (46.09 Nm) was obtained in the specimens bonded with CA adhesive and the highest bending moment capacity under diagonal compression loading (72.04 Nm) was obtained in the specimens glued with PVAc adhesive. Other than this, since there is no difference between these and the unbonded joints, the PU adhesive was not effective in increasing the bending moment capacity under diagonal tensile loading, and the PU and CA adhesives were not effective in increasing the bending moment capacity under diagonal compression loadings.

Superabsorbent polymer was prepared by graft polymerization of acrylic acid onto the chain of cellulose from flax shive by using potassium persulfate (KPS) as an initiator and N,N’-methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) as a crosslinker under microwave irradiation. SEM photographs were also studied for more information about the shive, cellulose from shive, and the superabsorbent polymer. The structure of the graft copolymer was confirmed by FT-IR spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The biodegradability in soil was measured at 32 and 40 oC. The polymer was porous, and thermal stability of the polymer was observed up to approximately 200 oC. FT-IR analysis indicated that acrylic acid in polymer was successfully grafted onto the cellulose. The graft copolymer was found to be an effective superabsorbent resin, rapidly absorbing water to almost 1000 times its own dry weight at pH around 7.3. The water absorbency in 0.9% NaCl, KCl, FeCl3 solutions and urine were 56.47 g/g, 54.71g/g, 9.89g/g and 797.21g/g, respectively. The product biologically degraded up to 40% at 40 oC in 54 days, which shows good biodegradability.

Coastal Bermuda grass (CBG) is an agricultural residue with considerable potential as a feedstock for lignocellulosic-based ethanol. The treatment of biomass with water at high temperature, termed autohydrolysis, can be used to recover sugars in the filtrate and to improve enzyme digestibility of the pretreated solids. The effect of a two- stage autohydrolysis process with respect to total sugar recovery relative to a one stage process was investigated. CBG was subjected to lab scale one-stage (150, 160, and 170 °C) and two-stage (150/170 °C and 160/170 °C) isothermal autohydrolysis processes followed by enzyme hydrolysis on the residual solids with different loadings (5 to 30 FPU/g). Two-stage autohydrolysis (160/170 °C) solubilized 94.2% of the hemicellulose based on the original CBG material but only 17.7% of the cellulose and 30.4% of the lignin. Increases in the severity factor (a combination of time and temperature) of autohydrolysis pretreatments decreased the recoverable carbohydrates and total solids. Two-stage autohydrolysis enhanced enzyme digestibility of the cellulose in pretreated solids relative to one-stage autohydrolysis, especially at higher values of FPU/g. The overall total theoretical sugar recovery achievable by the two stage process was 57.8% and for the one stage process only 51.6% with 30 FPU/g. This marginal increase would have to be considered relative to increased complexity of operations when deciding whether to implement one or two stage autohydrolysis.

The formation of vanillin and syringaldehyde during an oxygen delignification process was evaluated. The cleavage of conjugated Cα-Cβ bonds in phenolic lignin caused by the attack of oxygen leads to the formation of aromatic aldehydes and ketones. The formation mechanism was confirmed by the organic compounds identified in the spent liquor by GC/MS. Additionally, the formation of aromatic aldehydes and ketones of hardwood, softwood, and grass was investigated. The results showed that the formed aromatic aldehydes and ketones were related to the units of lignin structure. Among the aromatic aldehydes and ketones present in the spent liquor from oxygen delignification, vanillin and syringaldehyde are of high content, making the spent liquor a potential resource for vanillin and syringaldehyde production.

Galactomannan gum isolated from the seeds of sesbania was subjected to chemical modification via carboxymethylation in non-aqueous medium using monochloroacetic acid under the catalytic action of sodium hydroxide. The obtained derivatives were subjected to measuring the degrees of substitution (D.S.), rheological properties of their pastes, and evaluated as thickeners in printing cotton fabrics with reactive dyes. Highly substituted derivatives could be used successfully as thickening agents in printing cotton fabrics either alone or in admixture with sodium alginate. Prints acquire soft handle, colour strength (K/S), and fastness properties nearly identical to corresponding samples that were printed using sodium alginate.

The objective of this study was to test the bonding performance of nanoscale bondlines, which were fabricated with polyelectrolytes by layer-by-layer assembly process onto wooden substrates. In this study, environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) was used to characterize adsorbed multilayers of polyacrylic acid and polyallylamine hydrochloride on the wood surface. Cross-linking between PAA and PAH layers at various temperatures was studied using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The evaluation of polyelectrolyte multilayers as bonding agents for wood was conducted through compression shear block and flexural bending tests. Altogether, this research demonstrates a route to utilize nanoscale coatings as bonding agents.

The goal of this study was to prepare soda- anthraquinone pulp from kenaf whole stem and to compare the resultant core and bast pulps for linerboard production. Pulping was done under mild cooking conditions (active alkali 12-15%) with a cooking time of 30-90 min and a temperature of 160ºC. During the pulping process, kappa numbers ranged from 56.0 to 20.6, while total yields varied from 58.4 to 54.2% with a rejection rate of 2.3 to 0.1%. Based on the quality of pulp produced, kappa numbers 49.4 and 25.4 was selected as symbolic of high and low pulps respectively. The results of the study revealed significant difference between the properties of core, whole stem (KHK and KLK), and bast pulps. Core pulps with low freeness and high drainage time the study found produced sheets with greater density, tensile index, burst index and RCT, with lower light scattering coefficient and tear index than bast pulp. Whole stem pulps showed properties between those of core and bast pulps. Moreover, KLK with high drainage time produced papers with significantly higher strength properties than KHK.