Abstract
Globally, lignocellulosic biomass has great potential for industrial production of materials and products, but this resource must be used in an environmentally friendly, socially acceptable and sustainable manner. Wood and agricultural residues such as walnut shells as lignocellulosic biomass are one of the most affordable and important renewable resources in the world, which can partially replace fossil resources. The overall objective of the research is to provide background information that supports new applications of walnut shells in a biorefinery context and to increase the economic value of these non-wood forest products. This paper presents the properties characterization of liquefied biomass according to their chemical composition. All results were compared to liquefied wood. In this study, the liquefaction properties of five different walnut shell particle sizes were determined using glycerol as the liquefaction reagent under defined reaction conditions. The liquefied biomass was characterized for properties such as percentage residue, degree of liquefaction, and hydroxyl OH numbers. The chemical composition of the same biomass was investigated for its influence on the liquefaction properties. Accordingly, the main objective of this study was to determine the liquefaction properties of different particle sizes as a function of their chemical composition, also in comparison with the chemical composition of wood. The study revealed that walnut shell biomass can be effectively liquefied into glycerol using H2SO4 as the catalyst, with liquefaction efficiency ranging from 89.21 to 90.98%.
Highlights
Agriculture is very important for the overall development of individual countries and regions, but at the same time it can have a negative impact on the state of the environment.Agricultural production produces waste and agricultural waste is available in large quantities in both the EU and the Republic of Croatia and has the potential to become a source of renewable raw materials
Liquefaction degree content in walnut shell varied from 89.21–90.98%, which is similar to the results obtained for liquified wood (88.47–94.94%)
The study revealed that walnut shell biomass can effectively be liquefied in glycerol using H2 SO4 as a catalyst with liquefaction efficiency ranging from 89.21–90.98% under the same liquefaction conditions, which is similar to the results obtained for liquified wood
Summary
Agricultural production produces waste and agricultural waste is available in large quantities in both the EU and the Republic of Croatia and has the potential to become a source of renewable raw materials. Agricultural biomass is an important source of renewable raw materials [1] with great production potential, and the use of biomass as a raw material is continuously increasing throughout Europe [2,3]. Agricultural biomass can be used as a raw material for the production of natural fibers and is interesting from the point of view of environmental protection, since it is available, renewable and acceptable as a raw material source independent of petroleum products [5,6,7].
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