Lignocellulosic Biomass Fractionation and Depolymerization with Sub/Supercritical Fluids

使用亚/超临界流体进行木质纤维素生物质分馏和解聚

• 批准号: RGPIN-2014-05356
• 负责人: ArandaSaldana, Marleny
• 金额: $ 2.11万
• 依托单位: University of Alberta
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=611588
• 关键词: Lignocellulosic; Biomass; Fractionation; Depolymerization; Sub

Development of new environmentally friendly technologies is crucial to generate value-added products from vast lignocellulosic biomass, herein after referred to as biomass. Fluids under sub/supercritical conditions are versatile solvents for biomass processing of agricultural by-products (unmarketable crop straw) and food industry by-products (potato peel). Pressurized liquid (PL, e.g. subcritical water) and supercritical fluids (SCF), such as supercritical water and supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) provide a green processing platform to obtain new value-added products using fractionation techniques. Recently, the use of PL/SCF as reaction media has attracted attention for depolymerization. Reports have shown that by optimizing the reaction temperature and pressure, hydrolysis can be controlled to achieve targeted value-added compounds for specific applications. However, the reaction mechanisms involved need to be further investigated as well as their activation energy and volume. The applicant's research program to date has focused on the use of subcritical water and SC-CO2 to determine solubility of selected sugars and phenolics, extraction of bioactives, such as phenolics, carbohydrates, artemisinin, etc, as well as reactions in SC-CO2 media and under high pressure assisted by thermal processing, and modeling of phase equilibria of compounds in new solvent mixtures. Future work would therefore continue to build on this expertise by further contributions to novel combined processing development in PL/SCF media. The main objectives of this proposal are to expand fundamental knowledge on solubility behavior of value-added compounds in PL, and to determine how thermodynamic variables and transport properties influence fractionation, reaction, particle formation and the combination of these processes in PL/SCF media to develop further new green technologies to obtain value-added products of biomass that can have a number of uses in food and non-food industrial applications. In the proposed research program, thermodynamic properties, such as solubility will be measured experimentally. Equilibrium studies will allow the selection of optimum pressure and temperature for fractionation and reaction processes. For the reaction process, potato peel and straw will be used where their contents of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin will be determined before and after treatments with PL/SCF. Novel combination of processes will be experimentally investigated. After fractionation, further depolymerization will be assessed to obtain a diverse range of value-added compounds. Value-added compounds found in hemicellulose can be first removed and then the residues can be converted to value-added compounds through specific reactions or enriching the residue in cellulose. Then, nano-cellulose fiber/crystal will be obtained by novel process development. The overall goal of developing value-added compounds relying on innovative processing technologies will be accomplished through fundamental research at laboratory scale for proof-of-concept. Once the novel process is established, applications involving diverse biomasses of cereal crops will be investigated. Valuable information on the effect of process parameters will be obtained for a batch and semi-continuous system with a future goal to implement it on a continuous system. The use of PL/SCF technology minimizes or eliminates the use of organic solvents and catalysts, thus minimizing environmental impact and meeting the growing demands of environment- and health-conscious consumers as well as boosting Canada’s bioeconomy with the exploration of vast biomass available.

开发新的环境友好型技术对于从大量木质纤维素生物质（以下简称生物质）中生产增值产品至关重要。亚/超临界条件下的流体是农业副产品（滞销作物秸秆）和食品工业副产品（马铃薯皮）生物质加工的通用溶剂。加压液体（PL，如亚临界水）和超临界流体（SCF，如超临界水和超临界二氧化碳（SC-CO2））为利用分馏技术获得新的增值产品提供了绿色处理平台。近年来，以PL/SCF作为解聚介质引起了广泛的关注。有报道表明，通过优化反应温度和压力，可以控制水解以获得特定应用的目标增值化合物。但是，所涉及的反应机理、活化能和体积等还有待进一步研究。