• Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering
• /
• v.35 no.12
• /
• pp.2403-2412
• /
• 2018

The present study was aimed at evaluating the effect of variable sodium carbonate ($Na_2CO_3$) loading during wet air oxidation (WAO) pretreatment of rice straw in reducing biomass recalcitrance. The research study was intended to increase the cellulose recovery, hemicellulose solubilization, lignin removal in the solid fraction and limiting the generation of inhibitors in the liquid fraction while reducing the chemical input. The operating condition of $169^{\circ}C$, 4 bar, 18 min and 6.5 g/L $Na_2CO_3$ loading resulted in maximum cellulose recovery of 82.07% and hemicellulose solubilization and lignin removal of 85.43% and 65.42%, respectively, with a total phenolic content of 0.36 g/L in the liquid fraction. The crystallinity index increased from 47.69 to 51.25 along with enzymatic digestibility with an increase in $Na_2CO_3$ loading from 0 to 6.5 g/L as a result of removal of barriers for saccharification via effective cleavage of ether and ester bonds cross-linking the carbohydrates and lignin as indicated by FT-IR spectroscopy. A further increase in the $Na_2CO_3$ loading to 9.5 g/L did not significantly increase the sugar release. Thus, it was concluded that 6.5 g/L $Na_2CO_3$ during WAO is sufficient to increase the delignification and deacetylation, leading to significant changes in apparent cellulose crystallinity inter alia improvement in cellulose accessibility and digestibility of rice straw.

• Journal of Korea Foresty Energy
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.39-46
• /
• 2005

In this study, the possibility of sugar conversion of poplar wood(Populus $alba{\times}rglandulosa$) and their degradation features of major wood components were characterized using flow type supercritical water treatment system. The finely ground poplar wood meals were treated for 2min. under subcritical condition$(23MPa,\;275^{\circ}C\;and\;325^{\circ}C)$ and supercritical condition $(23MPa,\;375^{\circ}C\;and\;415^{\circ}C)$. respectively. The degradation products of poplar wood meals appeared brownish colors, including undegraded solids. Increasing the temperature of the system, the degradation rate of poplar wood meals was accelerated and reached up to $94\%\;at\;375^{\circ}C$. The total amount of reducing sugars in degradation products determined by DNS method were gradually lowered when the temperature condition became severe. This indicated that the reducing sugars formed were further degraded to kan derivatives by certain side reaction such as pyrolysis under higher temperature. In order to characterize degradation features of lignin, the degradation products were extracted with ethylacetate and the organic phases were subjected to GC-MS analysis. Main lignin degradation products were identified to vanillin, guaiacol, syrinaldehyde, 4-prophenyl syringol and dihydrosinapyl alcohol, which could be formed by the cleavage of ether linkages in lignin polymers by high temperature condition.