Abstract
The Kraft industry generates large quantities of alkali wastes in the form of green liquor dregs (GLD) and paper wastewater (PWW). These wastes are potential catalysts for lignocellulosic pretreatment and propose a suitable alternative to conventional, expensive, chemical-based methods. This study optimized two novel complete Kraft waste-based pretreatments. The developed methods included a steam-assisted combined GLD and PWW (SGLD-PWW) and a microwave-assisted combined GLD and PWW (MGLD-PWW) for enhanced sugar recovery from corn cobs. The SGLD-PWW and MGLD-PWW models gave coefficient of determination values > 0.87. Pretreatment optimization revealed a higher reducing sugar (1.53 ± 0.36 g/g) and glucose yield (0.85 ± 0.16 g/g) for the SGLD-PWW pretreatment compared to 1.04 ± 0.01 g/g (reducing sugar yield) and 0.51 ± 0.06 g/g (glucose yield) for the MGLD-PWW strategy. This study demonstrated that using Kraft pulping industry residues for the pretreatment of lignocellulosic feedstock significantly enhanced the sugar recovery, thus representing the “waste to wealth” concept.
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