Development of new sustainable bio-based technologies is a crucial part in the future industrial solutions. To fully utilize the lignocellulose material for energy and material purposes, novel type flexible energy and material saving technologies have to be developed. For many purposes, it is desirable to maintain the original chemical constitution of plant cell wall components. The key task in this process is to find new methods for gentle separation techniques for cellulose, lignin and hemicellulose in modern biorefineries. In this work we have recently studied mild “lignin first” pulping methods for wheat straw and aspen, and especially explored the effect of a brief hot water extraction (HWE) pretreatment on the pulping process. Our study showed that by using HWE pretreatment we were able to produce practically pure native-like lignin fractions from both biomasses, either by Na2CO3-ethanol organosolv process or formic acid cook. The HW -extracts containing hemicelluloses were also obtained in good yields, and by pyrolysis GC-MS and NMR they we found to contain small amounts of lignin (5-10%). On the other hand, experiments with 80 % [TEAH][HSO4] ionic liquid led to the destruction of lignin in all cases.

On the role of hot water extraction as a pretreatment method in search for soft pulping methods for modern biorefineries

2019 Spring National Meeting

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