Separation of Reducing Sugars from Rape Stalk by Acid Hydrolysis and Fabrication of Fuel Pellets from its Residues

Abstract

-This study was conducted to identify the potential of rape stalk as a raw material for biorefinery process of rape flower. At first, rape stalk (RS) was immersed in distilled water (DW), acetic acid (AA), oxalic acid (OA), sulfuric acid (SA) and sodium hydroxide (SH) solutions, and the content of reducing sugars liberated from immersed RS was analyzed. Glucose, xylose, arabinose and sucrose were detected varying with the immersion type. In particular, 1% AA-immersion of RS for 72 hr was the most effective conditions to liberate glucose from RS. Secondly, the RS residues were used for elementary analysis and fabrication of fuel pellets. In addition to the solution type, concentration of immersion solutions (0%, 1%, 2%) and immersion time (24, 72, 120 hr) were used as experimental factors. The contents of nitrogen, sulfur and chlorine reduced effectively through the immersion of RS in DW, AA and OA solutions. For properties of RS-based pellets, bulk density and higher heating value of RS-based pellets greatly increased with the immersion of RS, and the qualities were much higher than those of the A-grade pellet of the EN standards. Ash content decreased remarkably through the immersion of RS, and was satisfied with the A-grade pellet standard. Durability was negatively affected by the immersion of RS, and did not reached to B-grade of the EN standard. In conclusion, acid immersion of RS can be a pretreatment method for the production of fuel pellet and bioethanol, but use of the immersed RS for the production of high-quality pellets might be restricted due to low durability of immersed-RS pellets. Therefore, further studies, such as investigation of detailed immersion conditions, fabrication of mixed pellets with wooden materials and addition of binders, are needed to resolve the problems. Key words -