Samar El-Mekkawi¹, Wafaa Abou-Elseoud², Shaimaa Fadel², Enas Hassan², Mohammad Hassan^2,*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.12, No.9, pp. 1573-1591, 2024, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2024.053589 - 25 September 2024

Abstract Recycling of paper sludge waste is crucial for establishing a sustainable green industry. This waste contains valuable sugars that can be converted into important chemicals such as ethanol, poly hydroxybutyrate, and lactic acid. However, the main challenge in obtaining sugars in high yield from paper sludge is the high crystallinity of cellulose, which hinders hydrolysis. To address this, pretreatment using phosphoric acid was optimized using response surface methodology to facilitate cellulose hydrolysis with minimal energy and chemicals. The created prediction model using the response surface method considered factors such as acid concentration (ranging from 60%… More > Graphic Abstract

Jiapeng Wang¹, Bo Zhang^1,*, Haoqiang Cheng¹, Zhixiang Xu²

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.11, No.10, pp. 3595-3612, 2023, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2023.030005 - 10 August 2023

Abstract A new method of pretreatment of corn straw with Phanerochaete chrysosporium combined with pyrolysis was proposed to improve the quality of bio-oil. The characterization results demonstrated that microbial pretreatment was an effective method to decrease the lignin, which can achieve a maximum removal rate of 44.19%. Due to the destruction of biomass structure, the content of alkali metal and alkaline earth metal is reduced. Meanwhile, the depolymerized biomass structure created better pyrolysis conditions to promote the pyrolysis efficiency, increase the average decomposition rate of pyrolysis and reduce the residue. In fast pyrolysis, because of the enrichment… More > Graphic Abstract

Qifen Li, Xiaoxiao Yan^*, Yongwen Yang, Liting Zhang, Yuanbo Hou

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.11, No.7, pp. 3177-3191, 2023, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2023.027749 - 05 June 2023

Abstract Microbial Electrolytic Cell (MEC) is an electrochemical reaction device that uses electrical energy as an energy input and microorganisms as catalysts to produce fuels and chemicals. The regenerative electrochemical system is a MEC improvement system for methane gas produced by biological carbon sequestration technology using renewable energy sources to provide a voltage environment. In response to the influence of fluctuating disturbances of renewable electricity and the long system start-up time, this paper analyzes the characteristics of two strategies, regulating voltage parameter changes and activated sludge pretreatment, on the methane production efficiency of the renewable gas… More >

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 - 27 April 2023

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… More >

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 - 22 September 2022

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… More > Graphic Abstract

Jiageng Zhang¹, Zhengfeng Wang², Jiguang Huang¹, Chao Cheng¹, Heng Zhang¹, Dan Gao^1,*

Energy Engineering, Vol.119, No.6, pp. 2277-2296, 2022, DOI:10.32604/ee.2022.020795 - 14 September 2022

Abstract

Nowadays, the zero liquid discharge of flue gas desulfurization (FGD) wastewater from coal-fired units has attracted the attention of all countries in the world. The pretreatment methods generally have the problems of high operation cost, small treatment capacity, and poor flexibility. However, the membrane method can avoid the above problems. In the current research, it has not been found that someone directly uses submerged ultrafiltration to pretreat FGD wastewater. Therefore, this paper innovatively proposed to directly use ceramic ultrafiltration membrane to treat FGD wastewater, which can ensure effluent quality and improve the flexibility of the pretreatment

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Xiya Yu¹, Nianfeng Wei², Qisong Liu², Zhiyong Wu², Mizi Fan³, Weigang Zhao^1,*, Qinzhi Zeng^1,*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.10, No.8, pp. 2041-2053, 2022, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2022.018027 - 25 April 2022

Abstract To improve the mechanical properties of fast-growing Chinese fir (Cunnighamia lanceolate), expand its range of application, increase its value, and avoid the environmental pollution caused by impregnation with synthetic resin, Chinese fir was impregnated with a shellac solution. Since the shellac solution was difficult to penetrate into fast-growing Chinese fir, so microwave pretreatment was used to irradiate the wood to improve the permeability. This study investigated the effects of four factors, including the content of moisture in the wood before it was microwaved, the chamber pressure of microwave, the time of microwaving and the vacuum impregnation… More > Graphic Abstract

Tianyu Liu¹, Chang Wen^1,2,3,*, Wenyu Wang¹, Kai Yan³, Yongjun Xia⁴, Rui Li³, Juan Liu⁴, Yang Zhang¹

Energy Engineering, Vol.118, No.3, pp. 473-485, 2021, DOI:10.32604/EE.2021.014870 - 22 March 2021

Abstract Pretreatment before biomass combustion is significant for its efficient utilization and that combined water washing and carbonization can be efficient. An agricultural processing residues sesame stalk was selected and carried out two pretreatments separately, i.e., water washing-torrefaction (W-T) and torrefaction-water washing (T-W), to explore the effect on the fuel properties, combustion characteristics and particulate matter (PM) emission. The obtained biochar was also combusted under air and oxy50 (CO₂:O₂ = 50:50) conditions for the sake of investigating the effect of pretreatment and combustion atmosphere. The results indicate that, W-T and T-W both not only have great effect… More >

Piao Yongfeng^*†‡§1, Jiang Chuner^*¶#1, Wang Lei^*†‡§, Yan Fengqin^*†‡§, Ye Zhimin^*†‡§, Fu Zhenfu^*†‡§, Jiang Haitao^*,**††, Jiang Yangming^‡‡, Wang Fangzheng^*†‡§

Oncology Research, Vol.28, No.6, pp. 605-613, 2020, DOI:10.3727/096504020X16022401878096

Abstract The aim of this study was to explore the predictive role of pretreatment MRI-based radiomics on early response of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients. Between January 2016 and December 2016, a total of 108 newly diagnosed NPC patients who were hospitalized in the Cancer Hospital of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences were reviewed. All patients had complete data of enhanced MR of nasopharynx before treatment, and then received two to three cycles of TP-based NAC. After 2 cycles of NAC, enhanced MR of nasopharynx was conducted again. Compared… More >

Lixia Gao¹, Sheng Shi^1,2,*, Wensheng Hou¹, Shuhua Wang¹, Zhifeng Yan¹, Chao Ge¹

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.8, No.6, pp. 703-713, 2020, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2020.09055 - 12 May 2020

Abstract In this study, waste cotton fabric was used as cellulose raw material and pretreated in aqueous NaOH/urea solution system to investigate the effect of NaOH/urea pretreatment solution on the hydrolysis of cotton fiber. The cotton fiber was pretreated with different conditions of aqueous NaOH/urea solution, and the pretreated cotton fiber was hydrolyzed under the same conditions as the original cotton fiber. The results of characterization analysis showed that water retention value of pretreated cotton fiber was higher than that of unpretreated sample. Moreover, the cotton fiber presented both a convoluted structure and a coarser surface,… More >