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Low‐temperature, Low‐Energy, and High‐Efficiency Pretreatment Technology for Large Wood Chips with a Redox Couple Catalyst
Author(s) -
Gogoi Parikshit,
Zhang Zhe,
Geng Zhishuai,
Liu Wei,
Hu Weize,
Deng Yulin
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
chemsuschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.412
H-Index - 157
eISSN - 1864-564X
pISSN - 1864-5631
DOI - 10.1002/cssc.201702090
Subject(s) - softwood , cellulosic ethanol , biomass (ecology) , pulp and paper industry , lignocellulosic biomass , biofuel , cellulose , woodchips , hardwood , renewable energy , materials science , chemistry , chemical engineering , waste management , organic chemistry , botany , oceanography , electrical engineering , engineering , biology , geology
Abstract The pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass plays a vital role in the conversion of cellulosic biomass to bioethanol, especially for softwoods and hardwoods. Although many pretreatment technologies have been reported so far, only a few pretreatment methods can handle large woodchips directly. To improve the efficiency of pretreatment, existing technologies require the grinding of the wood into small particles, which is an energy‐consuming process. Herein, for the first time, we report a simple, effective, and low‐temperature (≈100 °C) process for the pretreatment of hardwood (HW) and softwood (SW) chips directly by using a catalytic system of FeCl 3 /NaNO 3 (FCSNRC). The pretreatment experiments were conducted systematically, and a conversion of 71.53 and 70.66 % of cellulose to sugar could be obtained for the direct use of large HW and SW chips. The new method reported here overcomes one of the critical barriers in biomass‐to‐biofuel conversion, and both grinding and thermal energies can be reduced significantly.