Sunday, May 4, 2008
4-14

Chemical and biochemical conversion of sugarcane residues to obtain chemicals and products

Luis R M Oliveira1, Marcelo B W Saad1, Sandra M Luz1, Regina Y Moriya1, Gisele A A Labat1, Denise S. Ruzene2, Saskia L Pereira1, Karine Pereira1, Rafael G. Candido3, Naila Mori1, George J. M. Rocha1, and Adilson R. Gonçalves1. (1) Biotechnology Department, Engineering School of Lorena- EEL-USP, Rodovia Itajubá - Lorena - Km 74,5 - Bairro Campinho, Lorena-SP, Brazil, (2) Department of Biological Engineering, University of Minho, School of Engineering, Campus de Gualtar, Braga, 4710-057, Portugal, (3) Biotechnology Department, Engineering School of Lorena, University of São Paulo, Rodovia Itajubá - Lorena - Km 74,5 - Bairro Campinho, Lorena, Brazil

This work reports several chemical and biochemical processes for the fractionation of sugarcane residues to obtain organosolv- and NaOH/AQ pulp, cellulose-derivative polymers (CMC), cellulose- and lignin composites, PF-resins (resols), fermentable sugars, oxidized lignin and chelants. Biological and diluted acid pretreatment of sugarcane bagasse and straw in a laboratory- and industrial steam pretreatment are shown. The acid-catalyzed-organosolv-, dilute-alkaline- and NaOH/AQ delignification of raw residues and pretreated materials is also reported. Enzymatic treatment of pulps with xylanase and laccase was also carried out, providing about 50% lignin loss in straw organosolv pulps. NaOH/AQ pulping of straw shows that  the delignification reach 5.3 kappa number (160°C 20 min). Kinetics of fungal pretreatment was studied and 15-day fermentation causes 30% total lignin loss, reducing the chemical requirement on delignification step. Polypropylene composites reinforced with cellulosic fibers (bagasse and straw) show good stress transference between fibers and matrix, excellent flexural properties and water absorption resistance. Straw pulps treated with xylanase provided an increasing of viscosity near to 10%. The steam pretreatment stage was carried out in 5 m3 reactor. This pretreated bagasse was submitted to dilute alkaline extraction followed by cellulase saccharification reaching 85% cellulose conversion to glucose. Oxidized lignin, obtained from enzymatic (Novozym 51003 and apple extract) and chemical (acetic acid, Co/Mn/Br, 50-115 °C, 5 h) has chelating properties removing about 20% of Cu+2 from aqueous solutions. Activation energy (16.4 kJ.mol-1) showed a reduction of approximately 50% in comparison with the non-catalyzed system. These results indicate that it is possible to produce several chemicals and products from biomass using the biorefinery concept. [Fapesp, Capes, CNPq, ALFA-Lignocarb].

See more of Poster Session One
See more of General Submissions

See more of The 30th Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals (May 4 -- 7, 2008)