Tobias Persson

Extraction of water-soluble hemicelluloses from barley husks.

Heat treatment of barley husks was performed to extract arabinoxylan with high yield and high weight-averaged molecular mass (M(W)). Microwave irradiation was employed for initial screening of suitable residence times (2-15 min), temperatures (120-210 degrees C) and initial pH (3-13) of the reaction slurry. Microwave irradiation was shown to be a good method for predicting the effects of heat treatment on a larger scale using steam pretreatment. A M(W) of about 40,000 Da was achieved without the addition of chemicals, by both microwave irradiation and steam pretreatment, with a yield of about 9%. The yield was significantly increased by slightly increasing the severity factor. However, the M(W) decreased below 20,000 Da at severity factors above 3.7. Arabinosyl side groups were enzymatically hydrolysed from the arabinoxylan by alpha-L-arabinofuranosidase to a degree of 47%, demonstrating the ability to specifically alter the side group substitution of arabinoxylans with the use of enzymes.

Fractionation of wheat and barley straw to access high-molecular-mass hemicelluloses prior to ethanol production.

The cost efficiency of the biorefining process can be improved by extracting high-molecular-mass hemicelluloses from lignocellulosic biomass prior to ethanol production. These hemicelluloses can be used in several high-value-added applications and are likely to be important raw materials in the future. In this study, steam pretreatment in an alkaline environment was used to pretreat the lignocellulosic biomass for ethanol production and, at the same time, extract arabinoxylan with a high-molecular-mass. It was shown that 30% of the arabinoxylan in barley straw could be extracted with high-molecular-mass, without dissolving the cellulose. The cellulose in the solid fraction could then be hydrolysed with cellulase enzymes giving a cellulose conversion of about 80-90% after 72 h. For wheat straw, more than 40% of the arabinoxylan could be extracted with high-molecular-mass and the cellulose conversion of the solid residue after 72 h was about 70-85%. The high cellulose conversion of the pretreated wheat and barley straw shows that they can be used for ethanol production without further treatment. It is therefore concluded that it is possible to extract high-molecular-mass arabinoxylan simultaneously with the pretreatment of biomass for ethanol production in a single steam pretreatment step.

Economic Evaluation of Isolation of Hemicelluloses From Process Streams From Thermomechanical Pulping of Spruce

Hemicelluloses, which are abundant in nature and have potential use in a wide variety of applications, may make an important contribution in helping relieve society of its dependence on petrochemicals. However, cost-efficient methods for the isolation of hemicelluloses are required. This article presents an economic evaluation of a full-scale process to isolate hemicelluloses from process water from a thermomechanical pulp mill. Experimental data obtained in laboratory scale were used for the scale up of the process by computer simulation. The isolation method consisted of two process steps. The suspended matter in the process water was removed by microfiltration and thereafter the hemicelluloses were concentrated by ultrafiltration, and at the same time, separated from smaller molecules and ions in the process water. The isolated hemicelluloses were intended for the production of oxygen barriers for food packaging, an application for which they have been shown to have suitable properties. The solution produced contained 30 g hemicelluloses/L with a purity (defined as the ratio between the hemicelluloses and the total solids) of approx 80%. The evaluation was performed for a plant with a daily production of 4 metric tonnes (t) of hemicelluloses, which is the estimated future need of barrier films at Tetra Pak (Lund, Sweden). The production cost was calculated to be € 670/t of hemicelluloses. This is approx 9 times lowr than the price of ethylene vinyl alcohol, which is produced by petrochemicals and is currently used as an oxygen barrier in fiberbased packaging materials. This indicates that it is possible to produce oxygen barriers made of hemicelluloses at a price that is competitive with the materials used today.

Fractionation of process water in thermomechanical pulp mills

In this work process water from a thermomechanical pulp mill was divided into five fractions by filtration and membrane filtration. Suspended matter was mainly isolated in the retentate from the drum filter, extractives in the microfiltration retentate, hemicelluloses in the ultrafiltration retentate and lignin in the nanofiltration retentate. The final water fraction was of fresh water quality. For each tonne of pulp produced, about 10kg of suspended matter, more than 0.3kg of extractives, 11kg of hemicelluloses and 8kg of aromatic compounds (lignin) could be recovered from the drum filtration retentate, the microfiltration retentate, the ultrafiltration retentate and the nanofiltration retentate, respectively. About 40% of the treated process water could be recovered as fresh water.

Comparison of Diafiltration and Size-Exclusion Chromatography to Recover Hemicelluloses From Process Water From Thermomechanical Pulping of Spruce

Hemicelluloses constitute one of the most abundant renewable resources on earth. To increase their utilization, the isolation of hemicelluloses from industrial biomass side-streams would be beneficial. A method was investigated to isolate hemicelluloses from process water from a thermomechanical pulp mill. The method consists of three steps: removal of solids by microfiltration, preconcentration of the hemicelluloses by ultrafiltration, and purification by either size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) or diafiltration. The purpose of the final purification step is to separate hemicelluloses from small oligosaccharides, monosaccharides, and salts. The ratio between galactose, glucose, and mannose in oligo- and polysaccharides after preconcentration was 0.8: 1: 2.8, which is similar to that found in galactoglucomannan. Continuous diafiltration was performed using a composite fluoro polymer membrane with cutoff of 1000 Da. After diafiltration with four diavolumes the purity of the hemicelluloses was 77% (gram oligo- and polysaccharides / gram total dissolved solids) and the recovery was 87%. Purification by SEC was performed with 5, 20, and 40% sample loadings, respectively and a flow rate of 12 or 25 mL/min (9 or 19 cm/h). The purity of hemicelluloses after SEC was approx 82%, and the recovery was above 99%. The optimal sample load and flow rate were 20% and 25 mL/min, respectively. The process water from thermomechanical pulping of spruce is inexpensive. Thus, the recovery of hemicelluloses is not of main importance. If the purity of 77%, obtained with diafiltration, is sufficient for the utilization of the hemicelluloses, diafiltration probably offers a less expensive alternative in this application.

Fouling of Ultrafiltration Membranes during Isolation of Hemicelluloses in the Forest Industry

The process streams in the forest industry contain a large amount of hemicelluloses that today ends up in the wastewater. This is an unfortunate loss of a renewable raw material. The hemicelluloses can be isolated from the process stream by using membrane filtration in a process that produces purified water as a by-product, thereby facilitating increased recirculation. However, process streams from the forest industry contain both aromatic compounds and inorganic ions that are known to cause fouling of the membranes. Thus, the most suitable membrane and pretreatment from a cost-efficient point of view must be applied to avoid fouling and life-time shortening of the membranes during operation. In the present investigation, fouling during ultrafiltration of a process stream from the production of Masonite was studied. The fouling of a hydrophilic membrane made of regenerated cellulose was less severe than the fouling of hydrophobic membranes made of polyether sulphone and a composite fluoropolymer. Pretreatment of the wastewater with activated carbon resulted in higher flux and less fouling of both hydrophilic and hydrophobic membranes. Lowering the pH of the wastewater led to less severe fouling of the regenerated cellulose membrane, but lower flux of the composite fluoropolymer membrane.

Characterization of hemicelluloses in process streams in thermomechanical and chemi-thermomechanical pulp mills

Increased interest in hemicelluloses as a renewable source of biopolymers has resulted in an interest in hemicelluloses in process streams in pulp mills. The aim of this study was to compare potential positions for the withdrawal of hemicelluloses from mechanical pulp mills. Samples were withdrawn at a total of fourteen positions from two thermomechanical and two chemi-thermomechanical pulp mills. The molecular mass distributions of hemicelluloses and lignin were determined by size-exclusion chromatography. Hemicelluloses showed peaks in the molecular mass interval of 0.2–2 kDa and 4–60 kDa, whereas lignin showed peaks in the range of 0.5–4 kDa, but no peak in the high-molecular-mass region. Glucomannan accounts for approximately two-thirds of the hemicellulose content of softwood, and mannan and glucan were thus the dominating saccharides in all samples. Mannan was preferentially found in fractions with a molecular mass ranging from 4 to 22 kDa.