Hot-Water Extraction (HWE) Method as Applied to Lignocellulosic Materials from Hemp Stalk

Abstract

The article describes the process of hot water extraction treatment of a specific material—in this case, shavings of hemp shives of different thicknesses, sorted by their thickness into three different fractions of 0–4 mm, 4–8 mm, and 8–12 mm. In addition, each sample from a given fraction was separately subjected to one, two, and three extraction processes. After the material was treated with extraction, cellulose determination was performed using the Kürschner–Hoffer method in order to find out the effect that hot water extraction had on the cellulose content of the test material. This research aims to determine whether hot water extraction strongly alters the cellulose content, which may translate into a change in efficiency when producing second-generation biofuel produced from this material. The cellulose determination showed the smallest cellulose losses were in chips 4–8 mm thick, while the largest were in chips 0–4 mm thick. Each repetition resulted in a loss of cellulose, with the steepest loss occurring after the second repetition of HWE, and the smallest after the third repetition—the exception being the 4–8 fraction, in which the smallest decrease occurred after the first repetition of the HWE (Hot Water Extraction) process.