Steam pretreatment of almond shells for xylose production

Autohydrolysis of agricultural by-products for the production of xylo-oligosaccharides

“…Using a short application of ultrasound, similar yields of the xylan extracted were achieved at lower extraction temperature and shorter reaction time, and the biological activity of xylans extracted with ultrasound was considerably higher than that of classical extracted ones [47][48][49][50] . Another example is the extraction of hemicelluloses from flax shive using hydrothermal microwave treatment followed by several purification steps [51].…”

“…Among the several xylan-rich biomass resources, almond shells, are produced in huge amounts (in Spain alone about 2x10 5 ton per year), and have a great potential for the production not only of xylose [47], but also of XOs. …”

The importance of almond (Prunus amygdalus L.) and its by-products

“…The processing byproducts, shells and hulls, account for more than 50% by dry weight of the almond fruits (Fadel, 1999;Martinez et al, 1995). The high xylan content of almond shells makes them a suitable substrate for the production of xylose (Pou-Ilinas, Canellas, Driguez, Excoffier, & Vignon, 1990), furfural (Quesada, TeffoBertaud, Croue, & Rubio, 2002) or for fractionation into cellulose, pentosans, and lignin (Martinez et al, 1995). This latter utilisation consists of an acid-catalysed hydrolysis performed under mild conditions, which causes depolymerisation and solubilisation of the main components present in hemicelluloses.…”

Effect of almond shell addition to substrates in Phaseolus vulgaris L. (cv. Saxa) growth, and physiological and biochemical characteristics

“…The shell can represent as much as 70% of the weight, and indicates a large quantity of byproducts that is produced by this industry (Ledbetter 2008), being primarily made of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin (Valverde et al 2013). This large amount of material has no economically and straight-forward important use, being either incinerated or discarded or using more complex approaches, used as substrate for xylose production (Pou-Ilinas et al 1990), furfural (Quesada et al 2002), or cellulose, pentosans, and lignin (Martinez et al 1995b). Other uses include its ability to absorb heavy metals or dyes, the presence of characteristics that allow its conversion into activated carbons, extracted to yield antioxidants, or to be used as a growing medium for plants (Esfahlan et al 2010).…”