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Current Trends in Pretreatment and Fractionation of Lignocellulose as Reflected in Industrial Patent Activities
Author(s) -
María Pablo Domínguez de,
Grande Philipp M.,
Leitner Walter
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
chemie ingenieur technik
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.365
H-Index - 36
eISSN - 1522-2640
pISSN - 0009-286X
DOI - 10.1002/cite.201500122
Subject(s) - hemicellulose , lignin , biomass (ecology) , cellulose , fractionation , raw material , pulp and paper industry , biorefinery , chemistry , biochemical engineering , lignocellulosic biomass , effluent , process engineering , business , environmental science , waste management , organic chemistry , engineering , biology , agronomy
The pretreatment process to disintegrate lignocellulose and to fractionate its three main components hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin, is a crucial step to enable sustainable and economic value chains based on biomass feedstock. This review provides an overview of the recent patenting activities on pretreatment. Most of these activities focus on optimization of different known processes to improve economics, such as increased catalyst efficiency, effluents recirculation, or lignin valorization. However, also a number of patents and demonstration activities based on emerging concepts for pretreatments are observed.