US-Egypt Cooperative Research: Environmentally Friendly Technology for Production and Modification of Cellulose Products

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

0209877GobranDescription: This award is for support of a cooperative project by Dr. Riad Gobran, Department of Materials Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Dr. Houssni El-Saied, Cellulose and Paper Department, The National Research Center, Cairo, Egypt. Production of cellulose from bacteria (Acetobacter xylinum) is considered as one of the most beneficial developments in meeting environment regulations. The objective of this proposed project is to investigate the potential of the bacteria for the production of cellulose products, on both laboratory and pilot plant scale. This project is also to explore the production of cellulose derivatives by using bacteria from the nascent stage of cellulose production. Further reduction of the production cost and pollutant materials will be also investigated by applying certain agro-industrial wastes, including molasses by-product and black liquors of rice straw and sugar cane bagasse pulping, as cultivation medium for production of bacterial cellulose (BC). The applications of the produced BC in preparation of cellulose derivatives, high quality paper, and in health food industries will be studied.Scope: There is a great amount of pollution caused by paper and cellulose industry effluents, especially those produced from non-wood fibrous materials, e.g. rice straw and sugar cane bagasse. Using new technologies or redesign of products will help meet new environmental criteria and reduce this pollution. This project is funded by the Office of International Science and Engineering and the Division of Bioengineering and Environmental Systems.