Hemicellulose treatment

From recent literature it is known that the disintegration of lignified cell walls can be achieved by steam explosion treatments resulting in solubilization of partially depolymerized hemicelluloses [91,92]. The application of this method on wheat bran yielded feruloylated GAX with different feruUc acid content [93]. Partly depolymerized water-soluble, acetylated AGX was obtained from spruce wood by employing microwave treatment [94]. 

The final values of the rate constants along with their temperature dependencies were obtained with nonlinear regression analysis, which was applied to the differential equations. The model fits the experimental results well, having an explanation factor of 98%. Examples of the model fit are provided by Figures 8.3 and 8.4. An analogous treatment can be applied to other hemicelluloses. 

The AIS of fresh and canned carrots were sequentially fractionated into water-soluble pectin (WSP), oxalate-soluble pectin (OXSP), acid-soluble pectin (HSP), alkah-soluble pectin (OHSP), hemicellulose and cellulose. The distribution of uronic acid among various fractions is presented in Table 1. WSP of fresh carrots accounted for 19.0% of the total pectin, while OXSP constituted 29.6%. HSP represented the lowest (12.0%) pectin fraction, whereas OHSP was the highest (35.6%) In the hemicellulose and cellulose fractions significant amounts of uronic acid were found. Heat treatments during canning altered the proportion... 

Influence of Metal Ions on Oxygen Chemisorption and Ignition of Chars. We have carried out extensive studies of the influence of metal ions in wood on pyrolysis mechanisms (5.6) and this approach has now been extended to oxygen chemisorption of the chars. The metal ions occur in wood predominantly as the counterions of the uronic acid components of the hemicelluloses (12). We have shown that they can be almost completely removed by very mild acid treatment without any other major change in the chemistry of the wood. Table II shows that the major metal ions in cottonwood are Ca, K and Mg. The acid-washing process removed 98X of the metal ions in... 

In general, these chemical treatments reduce the percentage of lignin, hemicellulose and extractives and increase that of cellulose. The chemistry of these processes is discussed more fully in Chapter... 

Various solvents are being investigated to dissolve lignocellulosic materials. Some approaches focus on the selective depolymerization and extraction of lignin and hemicellulose as pre-treatment to produce clean cellulose fibers for subsequent fermentation or for pulping. Other approaches attempt to dissolve the whole lignocellulose with or without depolymerization. The liquefaction processes that are carried out at high temperature (>300 °C), and produce a complex oil mixture, are discussed above with the pyrolysis processes. 

A solution of ethanol-water with diluted H2SO4 selectively dissolves the lignin and hemicellulose at 180-200 °C [55]. The resulting purified cellulose can subsequently be fermented to ethanol at high yield. Copersucar and Dedinin are developing a process for bagasse-ethanol that is based on such a pre-treatment of the bagasse [56]. 

The surface wettability of heat-treated wood decreases due to a reduction in the hydroxyl content of the modified wood (Pdtrissans etal., 2003). There is a reduction in the water-sorption capacity, which is related to a reduction in the number of primary sorption sites (OH groups) within the wood cell wall, largely as a result of the removal/degradation of the hemicellulosic component. As remarked upon earlier, hygroscopic properties are strongly influenced by the treatment method employed. Podgorski etal. (2000) heated... 

Shimizu, K., Teratini, F., Hashi, M. and Miyazaki, K. (1972). Effect of the thermal treatment on wood hemicelluloses. VI. Studies on the thermal analysis of arabinogalactan, and O-acetyl and deacetylated-galactoglucomannans. Mokuzai Gakkaishi, 18(2), 79-84. 

Endoxylanase produced by a transformant strain of Escherichia coli has been shown to decrease the kappa number and increase the brightness of pulp in an enzymatic pretreatment followed by chemical extraction (27). Beta-xylosidase, on the other hand, had no effect in the treatment. The mannanase produced by Bacillus suhtilis was found to be equally effective as the xylanase. The specificities of mannanases produced by two different organisms, however, differed considerably 49). Enrichment of the culture broth of Streptomyces olivochromogenes, containing mainly endoxylanase, with different pure enzymes or enzyme mixtures acting on side chains and other hemicelluloses, resulted only in slight increases in brightness and in kappa number reduction (55). 

Pretreatment of Substrate. Several different lignocelluloses were pretreated with NaOH. This pretreatment partially solubilizes the hemicelluloses and lignin and swells the cellulose so that the organism can utilize it for its growth and for production of a cellulase system in SSF. The treated lignocelluloses were not washed. The NaOH treatment is done with a minimum amount of water so that, after the addition of nutrient solution and inoculum, the moisture content is less than 80% wt/wt and there is no free water in the medium. More water was added to make suspensions of different lignocellulosic substrates of the desired concentration (1% or 5%) for liquid-state (submerged) fermentation (LSF). 

Cellulose is found in nature in combination with various other substances, the nature and composition of which depend on the source and previous history of the sample. In most plants, there are three major components cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin. Efficient utilization of all three components would greatly help the economics of any scheme to obtain fuel from biomass. Hemicelluloses, lignocellulose and lignin remaining after enzymatic degradation of the cellulose in wood would require chemical or thermal treatment - as distinct from biochemical - to produce a liquid fuel. 

One of the favored organisms for study of cellulolysis by Trichoderma is T. reesei. Consequently, many mutant strains which hyperproduce cellulase have been obtained by treatment with ultraviolet light, gamma irradiation, the linear accelerator, diethyl sulphate and N-methyl-N -nitro-N-nitroso-guanidine (7). Whereas much of the study of T. reesei has been with cellulose as substrate, it is relevant to consider the other fractions of natural lignocelluloses hemicellulose and holocellulose (the combined cellulose and hemicellulose fraction). 

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