Straw processing

Insulation Boa.rd. The panel products known as insulation board were the earliest commodity products made from fibers or particles in the composite panel area. These are fiber-base products with a density less than 500 kg/m. Early U.S. patents were obtained in 1915 and production began soon thereafter. The initial production used wood fiber as a raw material, but later products were made of recycled paper, bagasse (sugar cane residue), and straw. Schematics of the two major processes still ia use are shown ia Figure 4. 

Oxahc acid manufacture via the oxidation of carbohydrates is stiU actively pursued, especially in China (10—12). In India, processes which produce sihca and oxahc acid have been developed (13,14). The raw materials include agricultural wastes, such as rice husks, nut shell flour, com cobs, baggase, straw, etc. 

Pinch The industrial equivalent of controlling flow bv pinching a soda straw is the pinch valve, Mves of this tvpe use fabric-reinforced elastomer sleeves that completely isolate the process fluid from the metal parts in the valve. The valve is actuated bv applying air pressure directly to the outside of the sleeve, causing it to contract or pinch. Another method is to pinch the sleeve with a linear actuator with a specially attached foot. Pinch valves are used extensively for corrosive material service and erosive sliirrv senice. This type of valve is used in applications with pressure drops up to 10 bar (145 psi),... 

To 40 g. of dry chitin in a 500-ml. beaker is added 200 ml. of concentrated hydrochloric acid (c.p., sp. gr. 1.18), and the mixture is heated on a boiling water bath for 2.5 hours with continuous mechanical agitation. At the end of this time solution is complete, and 200 ml. of water and 4 g. of Norite are added. The beaker is transferred to a hot plate, and the solution is maintained at a temperature of about 60° and is stirred continuously during the process of decolorization. After an hour the solution is filtered through a layer of a filter aid such as Filter-Cel. The filtrate is usually a pale straw color however, if an excessive color persists, the decolorization may be repeated until the solution becomes almost colorless. The filtrate is concentrated under diminished pressure at 50° until the volume of the solution is 10-15 ml. The white crystals of glucosamine hydrochloride are... 

The rubber polyisoprene is a natural polymer. So, too, are cellulose and lignin, the main components of wood and straw, and so are proteins like wool or silk. We use cellulose in vast quantities as paper and (by treating it with nitric acid) we make celluloid and cellophane out of it. But the vast surplus of lignin left from wood processing, or available in straw, cannot be processed to give a useful polymer. If it could, it... 

Wiiest and Frey have pointed out that poppy straw has disadvantages in low yield of morphine and in bulkiness, and prefer poppy heads as a primary material. Many samples of capsules from seven countries were examined by them and found to yield from 0-18 to 0-9 per cent, of morphine, and they conclude that it should be possible to get ripe, dry capsules containing on the average 0-3 to 0-5 per cent, of morphine. Their paper includes a description of a process of analysis, which was found speedy and accurate. 

Human error has often been used as an excuse for deficiencies in the overall management of a plant. It may be convenient for an organization to attribute the blame for a major disaster to a single error made by a faUible process worker. As will be discussed in subsequent sections of this book, the individual who makes the final error leading to an accident may simply be the final straw that breaks a system already made vulnerable by poor management. 

Tests for Caramel.—Valuable indications of the nature of an extract are obtained in the process of determination of vanillin and coumarin. Pure extracts of vanilla beans give, with lead acetate, a bulky, more or less glutinous, brown-grey precipitate, and a yellow or straw-coloured filtrate, whereas purely artificial extracts coloured with caramel give a slight dark brown precipitate and a dark brown filtrate. If both vanilla bean extract and caramel are present the precipitate is more or less bulky and dark coloured, and the filtrate is more or less brown. The soluticm remaining after extraction of the vanillin and coumarin with ether, if dark coloured, should be tested for caramel. 

This enforcement method has been validated on the raw agricultural commodity (RAC) and processed parts of various crops. For hay and straw matrices, the method limit of quantitation (LOQ) was validated at 0.05mgkg and the method limit of detection (LOD) was set at 0.01 mgkg For all other crop matrices, the LOQ was validated at 0.025 mg kg and the LOD was set at 0.005 mg kg . The method flow chart is presented in Figure 1. 

Prior to analysis, samples should be chopped and finely pulverized with iiquid nitrogen using a large Hobart (forage, hay, fodder and straw samples) or a Wiley mill (grain and seed samples). Recently, frozen crop matrices were processed more effectively with a Robot Coupe vertical cutter/mixer without liquid nitrogen. 

Pulp mills. These separate the fibers of wood or other materials, such as rags, Enters, waste-paper, and straw, in order to create pulp. Mills may use chemical, semichemical, or mechanical processes, and may create coproducts such as turpentine and tall oil. Most pulp mills bleach the pulp they produce, and, when wastepaper is converted into secondary fiber, it is deinked. The output of some pulp mills is not used to make paper, but to produce cellulose acetate or to be dissolved and regenerated in the form of viscose fibers or cellophane. 

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