• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.102-108
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• 2008

At the University of Maine, a hemicellulose pre-extraction technology is now being investigated to improve pulp yields, reduce the organic and inorganic load for liquor recovery, and create a feed stream for the generation of new biomaterials. It is important to understand the composition of unextracted wood, extracted wood, and pulping extracts in the design of an economically viable pilot-scale ethanol plant. For analysis of wood pulp composition, the total analytical mass balance closure was 100.6, 100.3, and 81.6% for unextracted chips, extracted chips, and pulping extracts from HPLC-H column analysis. Meanwhile, the total analytical mass balance from the HPLC-P column was 97.8, 86.3, and 80.7%, respectively. This slight variability between H- and P-column results for analytical mass balance may be within the experimental error of the measurement. The data generated by this analysis are important to further design work in commercializing this process.