Hydrothermal and organic-chemical treatments of eucalyptus biomass for industrial purposes

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the promising feasibility of the hydrothermal pre-processing of eucalyptus wood and eucalyptus bark under organosolv and organic acid conditions to produce a highly concentrated cellulose feedstock. For that, particulate samples of both biomasses were heated in water solutions containing from 0 to 50%vol/vol of ethanol and from 0 to 50 mmol.L−1 of oxalic acid at temperatures between 140 and 180 °C. Significant differences on the thermal degradation profiles were observed for both biomasses indicating the partial hydrolysis converted them into a more homogeneous solid fraction with higher contents of cellulose. It was also observed a significant variation of the glycan content from approximately 39 to 76% for wood particles, whereas the variation for bark was from 32 to 50%. In general, the proposed pre-processing route was considered potentially feasible to concentrate the cellulose/glycan contents of eucalyptus biomasses for subsequent industrial utilization.