Search for optimum conditions of Paulownia autohydrolysis process and influence in pulping process

Abstract

In this study we evaluated the potential of a species trihybrid fortunei Paulownia, tomentosa and elongata as an industrial crop in terms of its contents in holocellulose, lignin, xylo-oligomers, monomers and other glucan and its aprovecahamiento for making cellulose pulp. Well optimized biomass autohydrolysis processes yield valuable liquid and solid phases that can be used to produce liquid fuels and cellulosic pulp. This study focused on the optimization of autohydrolysis temperature and time during processing of Paulownia fortunei x Tormentose x Elongate hybrid wood.. The process was modelled in order to optimize the extraction of xylo-oligomers and xylose in the liquid phase while preserving the integrity of cellulose fibres. The optimum processing conditions (viz. temperatures of 180-195 °C and operating times of 0-15 min) provided an acceptable solid phase yield (70%), while maintaining a high xylose and xylo-oligomer contents in the liquid phase. Soda -anthraquinone pulping of solid fraction provide 60.6 % pulp yield at kappa number 33 and a viscosity of 787 cm 3 /g. The autohydrolysed chips required 16.6 % less alkali than the regular chips to achieve kappa number 33.Keywords: Autohydrolysis, biorefinery, paulownia, soda-AQ pulp, saccharides. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 F o r P e e r R e v i e w 3 Page 2 of 22 John Wiley & Sons 2t-S-1Ed-D-P INTRODUCTIONThe current European social development concerning the use of natural resources is not sustainable since it is largely based on fossil fuels, which are non-renewable and release large quantiteis of CO 2 to the atmosphere. There is a shortage of renewable raw materials in the market to attend the energy, pulp & paper and chemical industry sectors. The way to a sustainable development and resource renewability includes the searching/use of new resources and chemical and consumption products with which the lignocellulose forest biomass, and specially that one of high production of biomass capacity (energetic crops), shows as a "necessary" source of raw material due to its ubiquity, availability and "low pollutant character" [1,2]. Biomass components fractionation would also allow the disposal of a variety of chemical products, for which technological development requires the integration of all stages, from farming and harvesting to the stages of fractioning and conversion to different products [3].Paulownia crops present very high productions of biomass and re-sprouting capacity (more than 50 tons/ha/year, specially in annual crops, which are among the highest growing levels described in the literature [4].Paulownia is one of these crops with very high productions of biomass and re-sprout capacity (more than 50 tons/ha/year, specially in annual crops, which are among the highest growing levels described in the bibliography [5]. Paulownia is a specie us...

Valorization of Leucaena leucocephala for energy and chemicals from autohydrolysis

“…The interaction between both variables was also significant, which suggests a multiplying effect of the increase in temperature and time on the degradation of xylan, and the increase in xylose and xylo-oligomer concentrations in the autohydrolysis liquor. The foregoing is consistent with previous results of other authors for various materials [40]. The fourth surface represents the cumulative values for the previous three and allows one to envisage the analytical and method errors with respect to the initial xylan content in the starting raw material.…”

“…Other authors have obtained oligomer extraction rates of up to 9.30% at temperatures of 180ºC [40]. The strongest dependence for xylose and xylo-oligomers was the linear dependence on the temperature and time.…”

Paulownia as a raw material for the production of pulp by soda–anthraquinone cooking with or without previous autohydrolysis

“…1,16,17 These compounds could cause problems related to pitch: pitch deposits in the manufacturing of pulp is a complex phenomenon, which has increased in recent years 25 and could cause problems by adhering to machinery and by reducing the quality of pulp. 26 The cellulose content in Paulownia trihibrid, 19 is 6.0-17.6% (expressed as glucan), lower than those found for Eucalyptus globulus, but higher (22.2-14.9%) than those found for Paulownia Fortunei, whereas lignin content is 17.6-28.2%, higher than that for Eucalyptus. The Paulownia hybrid fortunei × tormentose × elongate, used in this work, was harvested after 3 years of growth and produced more than 50 tons of biomass per hectare per year 27 .…”

Conversion of cellulose rich municipal solid waste blends using ionic liquids: feedstock convertibility and process scale-up

“…1, the blends with 90% corn stover (CG9 : 1 and CS9 : 1) achieved higher glucose release (91% and 85% yield), and those with 30% grass clipping (CG7 : 3 and SG7 : 3) were superior in terms of xylose release (99% yield). With more NRP or GC blending into the feedstock, glucose yields drop signicantly (blends 1-4 and blends [14][15][16]. This indicates that the selected MSW streams are more recalcitrant than the model feedstocks (corn stover or switchgrass) either due to the higher ash content or other contaminants present in the streams.…”