Abstract
Most of the global sugar and ethanol supply trade comes from the harvesting of Saccharum officinarum (i.e., sugarcane). Its industrial processing results in numerous by-products and waste streams, such as tops, straw, filter cake, molasses and bagasse. The recovery of lipids (i.e., octacosanol, phytosterols, long-chain aldehydes and triterpenoids) from these residues is an excellent starting point for the development of new products for various application fields, such as health and well-being, representing an important feature of the circular economy. By selecting green scalable extraction procedures, industry can reduce its environmental impact. Refluxed ethanol extraction methods have been demonstrated to meet these characteristics. On the other hand, effective non-solvent methodologies such as molecular distillation and supercritical CO2 extraction can fractionate lipids based on high temperature and pressure application with similar yields. Sugarcane lipophilic extracts are usually analyzed through gas chromatography (GC) and liquid chromatography (LC) techniques. In many cases, the identification of such compounds involves the development of high-temperature GC–MS/FID techniques. On the other hand, for the identification and quantification of thermolabile lipids, LC–MS techniques are suitable for the separation and identification of major lipid classes. Generically, its composition includes terpenes, phytosterols, tocopherol, free fatty acids, fatty alcohols, wax esters, triglycerides, diglycerides and monoglycerides. These compounds are already known for their interesting application in various fields such as pharma and cosmetics due to their anti-hypercholesterolemic, anti-hyperglycemic, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
Highlights
Nowadays, industrial processes that are not aligned with suitable sustainable standards can lead to undesirable consequences such as the pollution of all ecosystems [1] and the release of CO2 and other greenhouse gases that are responsible for global warming
The most common methods to isolate sugarcane lipids (Figure 4) from by-products will be discussed, with special attention to those that can be used at industrial scale and fall into a green chemistry strategy
Attard et al [18] analyzed sugarcane waxes by high-temperature gas chromatography (GC)–MS quadrupole mass spectra operated in the electron ionization mode (EI), identifying fatty acids, alcohols, alkanes, aldehydes, wax esters, sterols and triterpenoids
Summary
Industrial processes that are not aligned with suitable sustainable standards can lead to undesirable consequences such as the pollution of all ecosystems [1] and the release of CO2 and other greenhouse gases that are responsible for global warming. The resulting by-products from harvesting include tops and straw, while the wastes from the sugar processing steps are bagasse, press mud and molasses (Figure 1) [15]. Based on their composition (Table 1), this biomass has potential for use as bio-based products among different sectors, such as food, bioenergy and bio bulk materials [11]. Filter cake, results from slurry that is sent to filtration for sugar removal It can be used for cane wax production or as a fertilizer in sugarcane fields due to its abundance in nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium and organic matter [15,17]. Straw, molasses and bagasse are important materials applied for bioethanol production
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