Of lignocellulosic materials

Second-generation biofuel technologies make use of a much wider range of biomass feedstock (e.g., forest residues, biomass waste, wood, woodchips, grasses and short rotation crops, etc.) for the production of ethanol biofuels based on the fermentation of lignocellulosic material, while other routes include thermo-chemical processes such as biomass gasification followed by a transformation from gas to liquid (e.g., synthesis) to obtain synthetic fuels similar to diesel. The conversion processes for these routes have been available for decades, but none of them have yet reached a high scale commercial level. 

Detailed discussion of the classical wood pulping processes - e.g., the Sulfite and Kraft processes - is available in the literature [14]. Pre-treatments that aim to facilitate the fermentation of lignocellulosic materials are also discussed elsewhere [49, 62-64]. 

Rowell and Rowell (1989) acetylated Scandinavian spruce Picea abies) wood chips, then subsequently reduced these to fibres in a laboratory disc refiner, fibre production did not result in loss of acetyl content, but it was found that new water sorption sites were produced as a consequence of the refining process. In addition, these workers modified a variety of lignocellulosic materials and found that all of the materials studied exhibited the same reduction in EMC at comparable WPGs. 

Larsson, P. and Tillman, A.-M. (1989). Acetylation of lignocellulosic materials. International Research Group on Wood Preservation, Doc. No. IRGAVP 3516. 

Nakano, T. (1996). Characterization of chemically modified wood. In Chemical Modification of Lignocellulosic Materials, Hon, D.N.S. (Ed.). Marcel Dekker, New York, USA, pp. 247-275. 

Levulinic acid and formic acid are end products of the acidic and thermal decomposition of lignocellulosic material, their multistep formation from the hexoses contained therein proceeding through hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) as the key intermediate, while the hemicellulosic part, mostly xylans, produces furfural.A commercially viable fractionation technology for the specific... 

Both D-glucuronic acid and/or its 4-O-methyl ether and arabinose are also present in cereal xylans (4). Endospermic arabinoxylans of annual plants, often referred to as pentosans, are because of their branched structures more soluble in water and dilute alkali than xylans of lignocellulosic materials. They also have at least one, or even two, substituents per xylose residue (5). 

Most research on chemical modification of lignocellulosic materials has focused on improving either the dimensional stability or the biological resistance of wood. This paper reviews the research on these properties for wood and other lignocellulosic composites and describes opportunities to improve fire retardancy and resistance to ultraviolet degradation. 

The results of both liquid water and water vapor tests show that acetylation of lignocellulosic materials greatly improves dimensional stability of composites made from these materials. 

Hartley, R. D. In Improved Utilization of Lignocellulosic Materials in Animal Feed OECD Paris, 1985 pp. 10-30. 

Roles of Secondary Metabolism of Wood Rotting Fungi in Biodegradation of Lignocellulosic Materials... 

Several definitive reviews on pretreatment of lignocellulosic materials for improving cellulose hydrolysis (1,2,3) appeared a few years ago. More recently, two pretreatment methods (the Purdue process and the Iotech process) have been announced that claim superior perform-... 

Draude, K. M., Kumiawan, C. B., and Duff, S. J. B., 2001, Effect of oxygen delignification on the rate and extend of enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic material, Biores. Technol.19 113-120. 

Boon, J. J., 1989, An introduction to pyrolysis mass spectroscopy of lignocellulosic material case studis of barley straw, com stem and Agropyron, in Physico-chemical Characterisation of Plant Residues for Industrial and Feed Use, A. Chesson, and E. R. 0rskov, eds., Elsevier Applied Science London, pp. 25-49. 

Many pretreatments have been employed to enhance the degradation of lignocellulosic materials to glucose. The treatments fall into two general areas (Ryu and Lee, 1983) ... 

State of the art of applied fast pyrolysis of lignocellulosic materials—A review. Bioresource Technol. 1999, 68, 71-77. 

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