TY - JOUR
T1 - Polar solvents enhance the efficiency of microwave pre-treatment of woody biomass
AU - Amini, Negin
AU - Dwivedi, Swarit
AU - Ahmad, Waqar
AU - Haritos, Victoria S.
AU - Tanksale, Akshat
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was funded by the ARC Industry Transformation Research Hub for Bioprocessing Advanced Manufacturing Initiative (BAMI ) (Grant number IH130100016 ). The authors would also like to acknowledge Queensland University of Technology for conducting the NREL compositional analysis of the raw biomass.
Funding Information:
This work was funded by the ARC Industry Transformation Research Hub for Bioprocessing Advanced Manufacturing Initiative (BAMI) (Grant number IH130100016). The authors would also like to acknowledge Queensland University of Technology for conducting the NREL compositional analysis of the raw biomass.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Microwave pre-treatment of woody biomass may be the key to unlocking an energy efficient process for the production of renewable chemicals and fuels. Here we investigated the dipolar polarisation mechanism of polar solvents, ranging from dilute aqueous solutions of ethylene glycol, isopropyl alcohol, formaldehyde and water-only, to improve the efficiency of MW pre-treatment of woody biomass. The optimal conditions were 3.7 wt% FA solution for 10 min at 180 °C, where heating rate was accelerated by 50%, saccharification of biomass increased by 56% and stabilised lignin monomers were produced compared to water-only. Autoclave pre-treatment of woody biomass released 3 to 6 times less sugar yield in the presence of water-only and 3.7 wt% FA compared to MW irradiation. Our efficient method can potentially produce three streams of building blocks – cellulose fibres, solvated hemicellulose and stabilised lignin – for transformation into renewable products.
AB - Microwave pre-treatment of woody biomass may be the key to unlocking an energy efficient process for the production of renewable chemicals and fuels. Here we investigated the dipolar polarisation mechanism of polar solvents, ranging from dilute aqueous solutions of ethylene glycol, isopropyl alcohol, formaldehyde and water-only, to improve the efficiency of MW pre-treatment of woody biomass. The optimal conditions were 3.7 wt% FA solution for 10 min at 180 °C, where heating rate was accelerated by 50%, saccharification of biomass increased by 56% and stabilised lignin monomers were produced compared to water-only. Autoclave pre-treatment of woody biomass released 3 to 6 times less sugar yield in the presence of water-only and 3.7 wt% FA compared to MW irradiation. Our efficient method can potentially produce three streams of building blocks – cellulose fibres, solvated hemicellulose and stabilised lignin – for transformation into renewable products.
KW - Biomass
KW - Microwave chemistry
KW - Molecular dynamics
KW - Reaction mechanism
KW - Solvent effects
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85118332052&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.biombioe.2021.106281
DO - 10.1016/j.biombioe.2021.106281
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85118332052
VL - 155
JO - Biomass and Bioenergy
JF - Biomass and Bioenergy
SN - 0961-9534
M1 - 106281
ER -
