SBIR Phase I: Wheat Straw to Purified Cellulose Fiber Utilizing Novel Reactive Fractionation Process

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目旨在证明使用新型生物质分离技术从小麦秸秆生产生物纤维的可行性。该分级过程从生物质中分离木质素和半纤维素，留下相对纯的纤维素纤维部分，其易于酶促水解成糖。然后，糖可以转化为燃料乙醇和各种其他化学品，但纤维素纤维本身也可能有市场。木质纤维素分级的专利工艺采用逆流碱洗和渐进湿式氧化（反应分级）。该方法强调纤维素纯度作为预处理木质纤维素材料的关键特征。该项目的第一阶段将采用反应分馏工艺从麦草中提取纤维，评估它们在纤维材料应用中的价值，如纸张、纤维板或溶解纸浆，并评估纤维生产的工艺经济性。该项目的商业应用是在生物质加工领域，以生产有价值的产品（例如，纤维素）。生物纤维）。这些生物纤维可用于纸张、非纸张和工程材料市场。使用小麦秸秆作为纤维来源的好处包括对农民的潜在经济利益，回收农业残留物的环境利益，以及减少从传统来源生产，收获和运输原始纤维所需的能源和资源。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project proposes to demonstrate the feasibility of producing biofibers from wheat straw using a novel biomass fractionation technology. This fractionation process separates lignin and hemicellulose from biomass, leaving a relatively pure cellulose fiber fraction that is easily hydrolyzed enzymatically to sugar. The sugar can then be converted to fuel ethanol and a variety of other chemicals, but there may also be markets for the cellulose fiber itself. The patented process for fractionation of lignocellulose employs a counter-flow alkaline wash with progressive wet oxidation (reactive fractionation). The process emphasizes cellulose purity as a key feature of pretreating lignocellulosic materials. This Phase I project will employ the reactive fractionation process to extract the fibers from wheat straw, to evaluate them for fiber material applications such as paper, fiberboard, or dissolving pulp, and to assess the process economics of fiber production.The commercial application of this project is in the area of biomass processing to produce valuable products (eg. biofibers). These biofibers could find use in paper, non-paper, and engineered materials markets. The benefits of using wheat straw as a source of fiber includes potential economic benefits to farmers, the environmental benefits of recovering agricultural residues, and reduction of energy and resources required to produce, harvest and transport virgin fibers from conventional sources.