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Process and Engineering of Lignocellulose Utilization

Submission Deadline: 30 May 2023 (closed)

Guest Editors

Junli Ren, Professor, State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, School of Light Industry and Engineering, South China University of Technology, China

Dr. Junli Ren received her doctoral degree in the South China University of Technology, China, in 2007. Her research interests have been focused on the exploitation of new technologies to pretreat lignocellulosic biomass and the highly efficient transformation of hemicelluloses into platform chemicals and advanced biomaterials. Also, she has interests in the fabrication of lignocellulose-based carbon fiber paper with highly efficient catalytic properties for environmental purification.

Fengxue Xin, Professor, State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, China

Dr. Fengxue Xin received her doctoral degree from National University of Singapore, in 2016. His research focus is mainly on the bioconversion of waste lignocellulose into valuable chemicals such as butanol, succinic acid, et al. through the single or microbial consortia.

Feng Peng, Professor, Beijing Key Laboratory of Lignocellulosic Chemistry, Beijing Forestry University, China

Dr. Feng Peng received his doctoral degree in the South China University of Technology, China, in 2010. His research interests have been focused on fractionation of lignocellulosic biomass and hemicelluloses based materials.

Wu Lan, Associate Professor, School of Light Industry and Engineering, South China University of Technology, China

Dr. Wu Lan received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, U.S. in 2016. He joined the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering in the EPFL Switzerland for postdoctoral research. In 2020, he moved to the South China University of Technology as Associate Professor. His research interests focus on the isolation and structural characterization of lignin using chemical degradation, NMR, and LC-MS/MS technique. He also works on the catalytic valorization of lignin into valuable chemicals, including hydrogenolysis and oxidative cleavage.

Jing Bian, Associate Professor, Beijing Key Laboratory of Lignocellulosic Chemistry, Beijing Forestry University, China.

Dr. Bian received her Ph.D from the Beijing Forestry University in 2013. Her research interest covers the isolation, characterization, and high value-added utilization of hemicelluloses from wood and cereal straws.

Summary

Lignocellulose is the most abundant renewable biomass, mainly comprising cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. These components can be fractionated and be further converted into different chemicals and materials, such as paper, bio-ethanol, functional sugars, furan, and phenolics. These products are important to support the development of human society. Additionally, efficient utilization of lignocellulosic biomass is an important way to achieve the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. The efficiency of lignocellulose utilization highly depends on the processing and engineering techniques. The cutting-edge research has been focused on clean production and low energy consumption during lignocellulose processing for the sustainable development industry. And more intense efforts should be made to develop environmental-friendly techniques for lignocellulose valorization into valuable products as alternatives to petroleum-based products.

 

This Special Issue "Processing and engineering of lignocellulose utilization" mainly covers the research on the application of fundamental sciences of lignocellulose utilization, and the related technologies and engineering for the goal of low-carbon circular economy.

 

The scope of interests includes the following topics:

1)    Pretreatment of lignocellulose

2)    Process of lignocellulose into pulp and papermaking

3)    Catalytic conversion of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin into bio-based chemicals

4)    Lignocellulose biorefinery

5)    Fibers protection

6)    Low carbon economy sustainability basing on lignocellulose processing


Keywords

Lignocellulose, biomass, utilization, process, engineering, biomaterial, chemicals, bioenergy

Published Papers


  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Flame Retardant Material Based on Cellulose Scaffold Mineralized by Calcium Carbonate

    Jinshuo Wang, Lida Xing, Fulong Zhang, Chuanfu Liu
    Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.12, No.1, pp. 89-102, 2024, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2023.029057
    (This article belongs to this Special Issue: Process and Engineering of Lignocellulose Utilization)
    Abstract Wood-based functional materials have developed rapidly. But the flammability significantly limits its further application. To improve the flame retardancy, the balsa wood was delignified by NaClO2 solution to create a cellulose scaffold, and then alternately immersed in CaCl2 ethanol solution and NaHCO3 aqueous solution under vacuum. The high porosity and wettability resulting from delignification benefited the following mineralization process, changing the thermal properties of balsa wood significantly. The organic-inorganic wood composite showed abundant CaCO3 spherical particles under scanning electron microscopy. The peak of the heat release rate of delignified balsa-CaCO3 was reduced by 33% compared to the native balsa, according… More >

    Graphic Abstract

    Flame Retardant Material Based on Cellulose Scaffold Mineralized by Calcium Carbonate

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Application of Wavelength Selection Combined with DS Algorithm for Model Transfer between NIR Instruments

    Honghong Wang, Zhixin Xiong, Yunchao Hu, Zhijian Liu, Long Liang
    Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.11, No.6, pp. 2713-2727, 2023, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2023.025817
    (This article belongs to this Special Issue: Process and Engineering of Lignocellulose Utilization)
    Abstract This study aims to realize the sharing of near-infrared analysis models of lignin and holocellulose content in pulp wood on two different batches of spectrometers and proposes a combined algorithm of SPA-DS, MCUVE-DS and SiPLS-DS. The Successive Projection Algorithm (SPA), the Monte-Carlo of Uninformative Variable Elimination (MCUVE) and the Synergy Interval Partial Least Squares (SiPLS) algorithms are respectively used to reduce the adverse effects of redundant information in the transmission process of the full spectrum DS algorithm model. These three algorithms can improve model transfer accuracy and efficiency and reduce the manpower and material consumption required for modeling. These results… More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Co-Production of High-Grade Dissolving Pulp, Furfural, and Lignin from Eucalyptus via Extremely Low Acid Pretreatment and Pulping Technologies and Catalysis

    Chengxiang Li, Yue Wu, Chunhui Zhang, Yao Liu, Qixuan Lin, Junli Ren
    Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.11, No.6, pp. 2555-2574, 2023, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2023.026908
    (This article belongs to this Special Issue: Process and Engineering of Lignocellulose Utilization)
    Abstract Hemicellulose and lignin are not reasonably utilized during the dissolved pulp preparation process. This work aimed to propose a process for the co-production of dissolving pulp, furfural, and lignin from eucalyptus. High-grade dissolving pulp was prepared from eucalyptus using a combination of extremely low acid (ELA) pretreatment, Kraft cooking, and elementary chlorine-free (ECF) bleaching. The obtained pre-hydrolysate was catalytic conversion into furfural in a biphasic system, and lignin during Kraft cooking and ECF was recovered. The process condition was discussed as well as the mass flow direction. The results showed that ELA pretreatment could effectively remove 80.1% hemicellulose. Compared with… More >

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Investigation of the Interaction Mechanism between Lignin Structural Units and Enzyme

    Lijing Huang, Penghui Li, Kangjie Jiang, Wenjuan Wu
    Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.11, No.4, pp. 1613-1626, 2023, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2022.023605
    (This article belongs to this Special Issue: Process and Engineering of Lignocellulose Utilization)
    Abstract The effect of lignin structural units on enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass was investigated, especially the inhibitory role of lignin in non-productive adsorption with enzymes. Milled wood lignin (MWL) was isolated from different hardwoods of poplar, eucalyptus and acacia. The isolated lignin samples were characterized by elemental analysis, gel permeation chromatography, nitrobenzene oxidation and fourier infrared spectroscopy. The mechanism of lignin structural units on enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose was studied by quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). The results showed that different structural units of lignin had different adsorption capacity for enzymes. The results of nitrobenzene oxidation indicated that the S/G ratio… More >

    Graphic Abstract

    Investigation of the Interaction Mechanism between Lignin Structural Units and Enzyme

  • Open Access

    ARTICLE

    Quantitative Extraction of p-Coumaric Acid and Ferulic Acid in Different Gramineous Materials and Structural Changes of Residual Alkali Lignin

    Tanhao Zhang, Shuo Zhang, Wu Lan, Fengxia Yue
    Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.11, No.2, pp. 555-566, 2023, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2023.025701
    (This article belongs to this Special Issue: Process and Engineering of Lignocellulose Utilization)
    Abstract Ferulic acid (FA) and p-coumaric acid (pCA) in bagasse, wheat straw, corn straw, and corncob were extracted by alkaline hydrolysis and characterized by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). It was found that the FA and most of the pCA in gramineous biomass could be dissociated and released after being treated with 1 M NaOH at 100°C for 4 h. The yields of pCA/FA in bagasse, wheat straw, corn straw, and corncob determined by GC-FID are 39.8/11.5, 13.7/11.0, 28.0/11.0, and 35.1/14.5 mg/g, respectively. The raw materials and the treated solid residues were characterized by gel-state 2D Heteronuclear Single… More >

    Graphic Abstract

    Quantitative Extraction of <i>p</i>-Coumaric Acid and Ferulic Acid in Different Gramineous Materials and Structural Changes of Residual Alkali Lignin

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