Potential for degradation of lignocellulosic biomass via alkaline pretreatment using corn crop residual biomass

Abstract

The increasing interest in the development of renewable energy sources such as biogas or bioethanol has led to study different lignocellulosic biomass as feedstock. In this work, corn biomass (stalk and leaf) was used to obtain total reducing sugar (TRS) and evaluate its suitability as feedstock for biofuels production. Biomass characterization was carried out by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) technique in order to determine main components (cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin). For TRS quantification, different biomass particle size (0.5 mm, 1 mm, 2 mm, and in natura) were considered and the effect of alkaline pretreatment was studied in corn stalk, corn leaf, and corn stalk/leaf biomasses. It was found that corn cultivation wastes biomass exhibited high cellulose content of 28.38 g/L and 19.02 g/L for stalk and leaf, respectively. In addition, the highest concentration of TRS (28.89 g/L) was achieved using pretreated stalk/leaf biomass with 0.5 mm particle size indicating that alkaline pretreatment improves the TRS concentration. These results suggested that corn crop residues are an attractive feedstock for producing biofuels.

Selective and Binary Adsorption of Anions onto Biochar and Modified Cellulose from Corn Stalks

“…− and PO 4 3− removal was enhanced due to surface modification with Al of biochar synthesized from poplar residues [56]. The bromatological composition of corn stalks has been reported, which presents in their structure cellulose (35-50%), hemicelluloses (20-35%), and lignin (15-20%); the quaternization of the structure could be successful when occurred between hydroxyl groups of these lignocellulosic materials [57]. From the EDS images, C, O, S, and K atoms were observed in higher proportions.…”

“…As Donnan's theory illustrates [70], anion charge is an essential feature of the yield in the adsorption mechanism; it may lead to selective phosphate adsorption on both adsorbents evaluated against nitrate. Thus, considering that the adsorption of both anions under study has been reported to occur by Van der Waals forces, ion exchange and surface complex formation are involved due to the heterogeneity of their structure and binding sites [8,57].…”