Abstract
Background and Objectives: The choice of a suitable pretreatment method and the adjustment of the pretreatment parameters for efficient conversion of biomass to value-added products is crucial to a successful biorefinery concept. Pretreatment of corn cob using ZnCl2.4H2O/ Urea was carried out and optimized in this study. Methods: Effect of pretreatment conditions on cellulose recovery, hemicellulose recovery during the pretreatment of corn cob using ZnCl2.4H2O/ Urea was investigated via response surface methodology approach and optimized in this study. Experimental results were analysed and appropriate predictive empirical linear models were developed for each response. Results: For cellulose recovery, time and temperature, and solvent concentration were significant factors. Hemicellulose recovery in the liquid fraction is impacted by time and solvent concentration, while lignin recovery is affected by time and temperature. Using numerical optimization by desirability function, optimum pretreatment conditions obtained were: 90 min, 120°C and concentration of 71.32%/28.68 (w/w) ZnCl2.4H2O/ Urea. At these conditions, the predicted recovery for cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin were 99.03%, 27.18% and 72.43%, respectively, with a desirability of 0.902. The actual recovery was 91%, 29% and 68% for cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, respectively, at the same conditions. Conclusion: These results indicate that the investigated variables have pronounced effect on the pretreatment of corn cob. Therefore, optimum conditions are required for recovery of desired composition before conversion to value-added products.
Highlights
To reduce our dependence on petroleum based sources and mitigate global climate change, Alternative and renewable fuels derived from lignocellulosic biomass need to be investigated [1]
Central Composite Design (CCD) was employed using the Design-Expert (Stat-Ease, Inc., Minneapolis, USA) software to study the simultaneous effects of reaction time, temperature and solvent concentration of pretreatment on cellulose recovery, hemicellulose recovery in the liquid fraction and lignin recovery
These severities are considered high due to longer times and higher temperatures. This is in agreement with the various studies which state that hemicellulose is more susceptible to pretreatment conditions [26]
Summary
To reduce our dependence on petroleum based sources and mitigate global climate change, Alternative and renewable fuels derived from lignocellulosic biomass need to be investigated [1]. The energy from lignocellulosic biomass can be utilized directly through combustion to produce heat. The other form of utilization is by converting and upgrading biomass into more valuable and usable forms such as fuel oil, Corn-cob as well as other lignocellulosic biomass, are composed mainly of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. Cellulose is a crystalline structure formed from microfibrils which are composed of glucose monomers linked by hydrogen bonds while hemicellulose is made of polymers containing mainly xylose and arabinose monomers [3]. Pretreatment of corn cob using ZnCl2.4H2O/ Urea was carried out and optimized in this study
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