Sunday, May 4, 2008
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Applicability of Supercritical Technology for Structural Separate of Sugarcane Bagasse to Microbial Use

Diego T. Santos1, Arturo F. Sotelo2, Nalda R. Palacios2, Lilia M. Salaue2, and Silvio S. Silva1. (1) Department of Biotechnology, Escola de Engenharia de Lorena, Universidade de São Paulo, Estrada Municipal do Campinho, s/n, Lorena, 12602-810, Brazil, (2) Department of Food Science and Chemical Technology, Faculty of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences/ University of Chile, Vicuña Mackenna, 20, Santiago, Chile

At the moment the demand by renewable sources of energy has fomented the use of vegetal residues of diverse nature due to its large and increasing availability in tropical countries. Within innumerable agro-industrial by-products in Brazil, the sugarcane bagasse is the one that presents greater potential due to the great volumes generated by the industry of sugar and alcohol. The best option for its most potential use is using biotechnology techniques to obtain products with great value, for this a previously division of its structure is necessary, because the microorganisms only use carbon sources from short chain and free lignin. There are different processes to separate its structural compounds, but still there is not one with good results about time, effectiveness and costs together. A possible and potential process is using an extractor with supercritical CO2, due this fluid presents diverses advantages. This preliminary study had as aim to evaluate the potentiality of the use of the supercritical technology like assistant in the division of the structure of the sugarcane bagasse, to later use the sugars from the cellulose and hemicellulose using microorganisms. The results demonstrated that using 50% of supercritical CO2, 50% of ethanol (75% v/v), like modifier, 220 bar, 150º C and total time of reaction of 40 minutes it was possible to extract 91.6% of the lignin from bagasse. The preliminary results conclude that the great potentiality of the use of the supercritical technology to microbial use the sugars of bagasse.

Acknowledgements: University of São Paulo, University of Chile


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