• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.80-84
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• 1991

Lignocellulosic biomass including acetosolv ricestraw and spruce lignin were liquefied and converted into liquid hydrocarbons by catalytic hydroliquefaction reaction. These experimental works were carried out in 1-liter-capacity autoclave using 50% tetralin and m-cresol solution respectively as soluble solvent and Ni. Pd. Fe and red mud as catalyst. $H_2$ gas was supplied into the reactor for escaltion of deoxhydroenolysis reaction. Catalyst concentrations were 1 % of raw material based on weight. The ratio between raw materials and soluble solvent are 1g and 10cc. The reaction conditions are 400-$700^{\circ}C$ of reaction temperature, 10-50 atms of reaction pressure. The highest yield of hydrocarbon, so called "product oil" showed 32% and 5.5% of lowest char formation when red mud was used as catalyst. The product oil yields from those of other catalysts were in the range of 20-29%. The influence of different initial hydrogen pressures was examined in the range d 30-50 atms. A minimum pressure of 35 atms was necessary to obtain a complete recovery of souble solvent for recycling.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 2016

Biomass has been used for energy sources from the prehistoric age. Biomass are converted into solid, liquid or gaseous fuels and are used for heating, electricity generation or for transportation recently. Solid biofuels such as bio-chips or bio-pellet are used for heating or electricity generation. Liquid biofuels such as biodiesel and bioethanol from sugars or lignocellulosics are well known renewable transportation fuels. biogas produced from organic waste are also used for heating, generation and vehicles. Biomass resources for the production of above mentioned biofuels are classified under following 4 categories, such as forest biomass, agricultural residue biomass, livestock manure and municipal organic wastes. The energy potential of those biomass resources existing in Korea are estimated. The energy potential for dry biomass (forest, agricultural, municipal waste) were estimated from their heating value contained, whereas energy potential of wet biomass (livestock manure, food waste, waste sludge) is calculated from the biological methane potential of them on annual basis. Biomass resources potential of those 4 categories in Korea are estimated to be as follows. Forest biomass 355.602 million TOE, agricultural biomass 4.019 million TOE, livestock manure biomass 1.455 million TOE, and municipal organic waste 1.074 million TOE are available for biofuels production annually.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.13-19
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• 1989

Two different quartz types of gasification reactor were used for pyrolysis and gasification of sawdust, ricestraw, ricehusk and municipal wastes which contain only cellulosics., operating at 1 atmospheric and vacuum pressure respectively. Also a stainless steel autoclave gasification reactor was used which is possible to use up to 100 atmospheric pressures and $800^{\circ}C$ of reaction temperature to complete pyrolysis and gasification reaction. The catalysts used in this reaction w- ere $K_2CO_3$, $Na_2CO_3$, Ni and Ni-$K_2CO_3$ as CO-Catalyst. The product gas mixtures were identified to be CO, $CO_2$, $C_3H_3$, $CH_4$ and $CH_3CHO$ etc. by Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry. The pressurized gasification reaction shows significant increase in terms of methane composition and yield of product gases, comparing with those from unpressurized gasification reactions. The total volume of product gas mixtures amounts to 1600-1800ml per1gof waste of waste lignocellulosics or municipal waste, and the metane content of the gas mixtures reached to 40%, when $800^{\circ}C$ of reaction temperature and 100 atmospheric pressures with Ni-$K_2CO_3$ as CO-catalyst in the pressurized gasification reaction were used. This results show that the product gas mixtures containing 40% of methane call be used for alternative enegy source.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.355-359
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• 2014

Recently, many chemicals produced from renewable resources such as lignocellulosics, micro-algae and marine macro-algae, were introduced to chemical industry. Chitin/chitosan is secondly abundant feedstock on Earth. It is easily obtained from crusraceans' shells such as crab, shrimp and insects. In this work, we performed the acidic-hydrothermal hydrolysis to produce levulinic acid from chitosan using statistical approach. By design of response surface methodology, the effect of reaction temperature, catalyst amount, and reaction time and their reciprocal interactions were investigated. As a result, higher reaction temperature and catalyst amount increased the higher concentration of levulinic acid. However, reaction time did not caused large increase of levulinic acid after some reaction period. Levulinic acid of 2.7 g/L produced from chitosan in the optimized condition of reaction temperature of $175^{\circ}C$, sulfuric acid of 2.4% and reaction time of 40.7 min.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.33 no.1 s.129
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• pp.77-86
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• 2005

In order to investigate the ability of log wood for oak mushroom production as a source of an alternative energy, both chemical and physical characteristics of log wood were investigated according to the cultivation periods. Also, both chemical and physical characteristics of material that treated by steam explosion were investigated to confirm the pretreatment effect by remaining enzyme as a control. The contents of ash, water-, alkali- and organic soluble extracts have been increased after the inoculation. It appeard that holocellulose contents substantially decreased and the contents of lignin as another main component of wood remained constant after the inoculation. However this result implied that indeed, a sufficient amount of lignin has been degraded paritially by enzymes of oak mushroom Lentinus edodes if we consider that the amount of holocelulose was substantially reduced. It also indicated that the degree of degradation gradually progressed but crystallinity decreased after the inoculation. The contents of water-, alkali- and organic soluble extracts have been increased by steam explosion. Holocellulose contents increased within narrow limits and lignin contents remained constant. However the contents of holocellulose and lignin have been decreased by steam explosion, considering that the amount of other extractives was relatively increased. The degree of crystallinity and lignin contents reduction by steam explosion was almost similar to the result obtained by increasing cultivation periods. According to the results, log woods for mushroom production have a potential as material for developing alternative energy.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.81-95
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• 2006

In order to investigate the possibility of waste logs after oak mushroom production as a source of an alternative energy and to obtain the fundamental data of supercritical water hydrolysis that has been paid attention as a new saccharification method of lignocellulosics, supercritical water hydrolysis of normal log woods (Quercus acutissima Carruth) and waste logs was carried out. With the increase of reaction time and temperature, the color of the degradation products has been dark and the degradation rate and the crystalline index increased. However the increase of reaction pressure affected the color of the degradation products and the degradation rate at only low reaction temperature. In the early stage of the reaction, the degradation of hemicellulose was progressed, while in the late stage, the cellulose was degraded. The increase of reaction time and reaction temperature (less than $415^{\circ}C$) improved the sugar yield, while at high temperature(more than $415^{\circ}C$), the sugar yield was decreased. Based on the result of the sugar yield, the optimal hydrolysis condition of Q. acutissima Carruth by supercritical water was determined to be $415^{\circ}C$, 60 seconds and 230 pressure bar with the sugar yield of 2.68% (w/w). At the optimal condition, the supercritical water hydrolysis of waste logs after the mushroom production was carried out and the sugar yield was increased to 358% (w/w). The major degradation products of waste logs by supercritical water hydrolysis were 1,1'-oxybis-benzene and 1,2-benzendicarboxylic acid by the GC-MS analysis. At the reaction condition with low degradation rate, the fatty acids such as pentadecanoic acid, 14-methyl-heptadecanoic acid were identified. With the increase of the reaction temperature and time, the amounts of phenol and benzene were increased, but the reaction pressure did not affect the kinds of degradation products. Holocellulose content was 60.6~79.2% in the water insoluble residue and the monosaccharide yield of the water insoluble residue was 49.2~675% by the acid hydrolysis. The monosaccharide yield of water-soluble portion was increased largely by the second hydrolysis using dilute acid.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.255-264
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• 2009

To evaluate the effects of chemical pretreatments of lignocellulosic biomass on enzymatic hydrolysis process, Populus euramericana was pretreated for 1 hr with 1% sulfuric acid ($H_2SO_4$) at $150^{\circ}C$ and 1% sodium hydroxide (NaOH) at $160^{\circ}C$, respectively. Before the enzymatic hydrolysis, each pretreated sample was subjected to drying process and thus finally divided into four subgroups; dried or non-dried acid pretreated samples and dried or non-dried alkali pretreated samples and chemical and physical properties of them were analyzed. Biomass degradation by acid pretreatment was determined to 6% higher compared to alkali pretreatment. By the action of acid ca. 24.5% of biomass was dissolved into solution, while alkali degraded ca. 18.6% of biomass. However, reverse results were observed in delignification rates, in which alkali pretreatment released 2% more lignin fragment from biomass to the solution than acid pretreatment. Unexpectedly, samples after both pretreatments were determined to somewhat higher crystallinity than untreated samples. This result may be explained by selective disrupture of amorphous region in cellulose during pretreatments, thus the cellulose crystallinity seems to be accumulated in the pretreated samples. SEM images revealed that pretreated samples showed relative rough and partly cracked surfaces due to the decomposition of components, but the image of acid pretreated samples which were dried was similar to that of the control. In pore size distribution, dried acid pretreated samples were similar to the control, while that in alkali pretreated samples was gradually increased as pore diameter increased. The pore volume which increased by acid pretreatment rapidly decreased by drying process. Alkali pretreatment was much more effective on enzymatic digestibility than acid pretreatment. The sample after alkali pretreatment was enzymatically hydrolyzed up to 45.8%, while only 26.9% of acid pretreated sample was digested at the same condition. The high digestibility of the sample was also influenced to the yields of monomeric sugars during enzymatic hydrolysis. In addition, drying process of pretreated samples affected detrimentally not only to digestibility but also to the yields of monomeric sugars.