Arundo donax L. reed: new perspectives for pulping and bleaching. 5. Ozone-based TCF bleaching of organosolv pulps

Removal of wood extractives as pulp (pre-)treatment: a technological review

Wood extractives usually do not exceed five percent of dry wood mass but can be a serious issue for pulping as well as for the pulp itself. They cause contamination and damages to process equipment and negatively influence pulp quality. This paper addresses not only the extractives-related problems but also different solutions for these issues. It is an extensive review of different technologies for removing wood extractives, starting with methods prior to pulping. Several wood yard operations like debarking, knot separation, and wood seasoning are known to significantly decreasing the amount of wood extractives. Biological treatment has also been proven as a feasible method for reducing the extractives content before pulping, but quite hard to handle. During pulping, the extractives reduction efficiency depends on the pulping method. Mechanical pulping removes the accessory compounds of wood just slightly, but chemical pulping, on the other hand, removes them to a large extent. Organosolv pulping even allows almost complete removal of wood extractives. The residual extractives content can be significantly reduced by pulp bleaching. Nevertheless, different extraction-based methods have been developed for removing wood extractives before pulping or bleaching. They range from organic-solvent-based extractions to novel processes like supercritical fluid extractions, ionic liquids extractions, microwave technology, and ultrasonic-assisted extraction. Although these methods deliver promising results and allow utilization of wood extractives in most cases, they suffer from many drawbacks towards an economically viable industrial-scale design, concluding that further research has to be done on these topics.

Graphical abstract

Biobleaching: An eco-friendly approach to reduce chemical consumption and pollutants generation

The pulp and paper industry is known to be a large contributor to environmental pollution due to the huge consumption of chemicals and energy. Several chemicals including H2SO4, Cl2, ClO2, NaOH, and H2O2 are used during the bleaching process. These chemicals react with lignin and carbohydrates to generate a substantial amount of pollutants in bleach effluents. Environmental pressure has compelled the pulp and paper industry to reduce pollutant generation from the bleaching section. Enzymes have emerged as simple, economical, and eco-friendly alternatives for bleaching of pulp. The pretreatment of pulp with enzymes is termed as biobleaching or pre-bleaching. Different microbial enzymes such as xylanases, pectinases, laccases, manganese peroxidases (MnP), and lignin peroxidases are used for biobleaching. Xylanases depolymerize the hemicelluloses precipitated on pulp fiber surfaces and improves the efficiency of bleaching chemicals. Xylanase treatment also increases the pulp fibrillation and reduces the beating time of the pulp. Pectinases hydrolyze pectin available in the pulp fibers and improve the papermaking process. Laccase treatment is found more effective along with mediator molecules (as a laccase-mediator system). Biobleaching of pulp results in the superior quality of pulp along with lower consumption of chlorine-based chemicals and lower generation of adsorbable organic halidesadsorbable organic halides (AOX. An enzyme pretreatment reduces the kappa number of pulp and improves ISO brightness significantly. Better physical strength properties and pulp viscosity have also been observed during biobleaching of pulp.

Feasibility of ramie fibers as raw material for the isolation of nanofibrillated cellulose

In this study, a strategy was adopted to enhance the use of ramie fibers as raw material for isolation of cellulose nanofibers (CNFs). Ramie pulp was produced by alkaline organosolv followed by bleaching. CNFs were produced by mechanical defibrillation, and films were fabricated via casting. Effects of number of passes in the mechanical grinding on physical and mechanical properties of CNF films were comprehensively studied. Potential of ramie fibers was proved by fabricating homogeneous nanofibers with average thickness of 8.72 nm, which led to CNF films with dense and non-porous networks, and crystallinity index of 76-78%. Tensile strength (42-82 MPa) and dynamic mechanical (9-11 GPa) performance were good only for less severe mechanical defibrillation. Lower solubility (1.85-2.43%). and activity (0.69) in water, and outstanding barrier properties against water vapor and oxygen make ramie suitable for more sustainable extraction of cellulose nanofibers and production of CNF films for diverse applications.

Effect of incorporation of ozone prior to ECF bleaching on pulp, paper and effluent quality

The pulp and paper industry is highly dependent on forest and water resources. It has more concerns on fair utilization of these resources and their conservation for its further expansion. Present study emphasizes on the use of rice straw (agro waste) in papermaking to protect wood based resources. It further deals with ozone bleaching (Z) prior to elemental chlorine free bleaching that proved to be significant in terms of reducing the effluent load specially the reduction in toxic, recalcitrant and carcinogenic compounds. Z based sequences resulted in pulp brightness of ∼85% that was 3.6% higher than the elemental chlorine free bleaching. Bleached pulps of Z based sequences were found to be having better strength properties than elemental chlorine based sequence and thus may be adopted as improved bleaching technology. The analysis of handsheets prepared after pulp bleaching was performed using X-Ray diffraction, ATR-FTIR and SEM. Incorporating ozone stage resulted in marked reduction of 58% and 63% in total solids in bleaching wastewater. Reduction of more than 80% in BOD, COD and adsorbable organic halides was achieved in Z based bleaching in comparison to chlorine bleaching. The amount of chlorophenols, guaiacols, catechols, vanillins and syringols became negligible (approx. 90% reduction) in effluents of Z based bleaching sequences. The chlorine dioxide followed by peroxide bleaching after Z stage was found to be the most promising to reduce the effluent load.

A perspective on bioethanol production from biomass as alternative fuel for spark ignition engine

The increasing fuel consumption of fossil fuels has led to the development of alternative fuels for the future.

Arundo donax L., a candidate for phytomanaging water and soils contaminated by trace elements and producing plant-based feedstock. A review

Plants and associated microorganisms are used to remediate anthropogenic metal(loid) contamination of water, soils and sediments. This review focuses on the potential of Arundo donax L. (Giant reed) for alleviating risks due to soils, water, and sediments contaminated by trace elements (TE), with emphasis on its advantages and limits over macrophytes and perennial grasses used for bioenergy and plant-based feedstock. Arundo donax is relevant to phytomanage TE-contaminated matrices, notably in its native area, as it possesses characteristics of large biomass production even under nutrient and abiotic stresses, fast growth rate, TE tolerance and accumulation mainly in below ground plant parts. Cultivating A. donax on contaminated lands and in constructed wetlands can contribute to increase land availability and limit the food vs. plant-based feedstock controversy. To gain more tools for decision-taking and sustainable management,further researches on A. donax should focus on: interactions between roots, TE exposure, and rhizosphere and endophytic microorganisms; biomass response to (a)biotic factors; sustainable agricultural practices on marginal and contaminated land; integration into local, efficient, energy and biomass conversion chains with concern to biomass quality and production; Life-Cycle Assessment including contaminant behavior, as well as environmental, agricultural and socio-economic benefits and drawbacks.

Association of wet disk milling and ozonolysis as pretreatment for enzymatic saccharification of sugarcane bagasse and straw

Ozonolysis was studied separately and in combination with wet disk milling (WDM) for the pretreatment of sugarcane bagasse and straw, with the aim of improving their enzymatic saccharification. The glucose yields for ozonolysis followed by WDM were 89.7% for bagasse and 63.1% for straw, whereas the use of WDM followed by ozonolysis resulted in glucose yields of 81.1% for bagasse and 92.4% for straw, with shorter WDM time. This last procedure allowed a substantial decrease in energy consumption in comparison to the use of WDM alone or of ozonolysis followed by WDM. Higher overall saccharification yields with shorter milling times were observed when ozonolysis was carried out before WDM. This effect might be related to the higher specific surface area. Additionally, a finer morphology was observed by the association of the two treatments in comparison to the sole use of ozonolysis or WDM.

TCF bleaching sequence in kraft pulping of olive tree pruning residues

The aim of the present work was to find a suitable Kraft cooking process for olive tree pruning (OTP), in order to produce pulp of kappa number about 17. The Kraft pulp produced under optimized conditions showed a viscosity of 31.5 mPa·s and good physical, mechanical, and optical properties, which are suitable for paper production. The physical-mechanical and optical properties were measured before and after bleaching. Although the OTP pulp was bleached to 90.9% ISO brightness (kappa<1), the process demanded a long sequence of stages, OZQPOZQPO. The bleached pulp showed a brightness reversion equal to 1.3%. Furthermore, this bleached pulp did not need a high intensity of beating due to high drainability degree in the unbeaten pulp. So that, OTP is suggested as an interesting raw material for cellulosic pulp production because its properties are comparable to those of other agricultural residues, currently used in the paper industry.

Separation and characterization of acetyl and non-acetyl hemicelluloses of Arundo donax by ammonium sulfate precipitation

Delignified Arundo donax was sequentially extracted with DMSO, saturated barium hydroxide, and 1.0 M aqueous NaOH solution. The yields of the soluble fractions were 10.2, 6.7, and 10.0% (w/w), respectively, of the dry Arundo donax materials. The DMSO-, Ba(OH)(2)- and NaOH-soluble hemicellulosic fractions were further fractionated into two subfractions by gradient 50% and 80% saturation ammonium sulfate precipitation, respectively. Monosaccharide, molecular weight, FT-IR, and 1D ((1)H and (13)C) and 2D (HSQC) NMR analysis revealed the differences in structural characteristics and physicochemical properties among the subfractions. The subfractions precipitated with 50% saturation ammonium sulfate had lower arabinose/xylose and glucuronic acid/xylose ratios but had higher molecular weight than those of the subfractions precipitated by 80% saturation ammonium sulfate. FT-IR and NMR analysis revealed that the highly acetylated DMSO-soluble hemicellulosic subfraction (H(D50)) could be precipitated with a relatively lower concentration of 50% saturated ammonium sulfate, and thus the gradient ammonium sulfate precipitation technique could discriminate acetyl and non-acetyl hemicelluloses. It was found that the DMSO-soluble subfraction H(D50) precipitated by 50% saturated ammonium sulfate mainly consisted of poorly substituted O-acetyl arabino-4-O-methylglucurono xylan with terminal units of arabinose linked on position 3 of xylose, 4-O-methylglucuronic acid residues linked on position 2 of the xylan bone, and the acetyl groups (degree of acetylation, 37%) linked on position 2 or 3. The DMSO-soluble subfraction H(D80) precipitated by 80% saturated ammonium sulfate was mainly composed of highly substituted arabino-4-O-methylglucurono xylan and β-d-glucan.

Nitrate removal from aqueous solution by Arundo donax L. reed based anion exchange resin

Arundo donax L. reed based anion exchange resin (ALR-AE resin) was prepared by the amination reaction for the adsorption of nitrate from aqueous solution. The physicochemical properties of the ALR-AE resin as well as its adsorption properties for nitrate were measured. Results indicated that large amounts of amine groups have been grafted onto the structure of the resin. The FTIR and Raman spectra validated the ion exchange mechanism for nitrate adsorption by ALR-AE resin. The adsorption data showed an exothermic nature for the adsorption of nitrate by ALR-AE resin, and the equilibrium time for the adsorption process was about 10 min. The maximum adsorption capacity (Q(max)) for nitrate was 44.61 mg/g. The saturated adsorption capacity of ALR-AE resin in column was about 38.9 mg/g, which accounted for about 87.2% of the resin's Q(max). The preferential adsorption capacity of the ALR-AE resin followed the order as: SO(4)(2-)>NO(3)(-) ≈ PO(4)(3-)>NO(2)(-). In addition, the utilization of the resin in actual water samples indicated that the ALR-AE resin could be used for the treatment of many ionic polluted wastewaters.

Effect of ozonolysis pretreatment on enzymatic digestibility of wheat and rye straw

Wheat and rye straws were pretreated with ozone to increase the enzymatic hydrolysis extent of potentially fermentable sugars. Through a 2(5-1) factorial design, this work studies the influence of five operating parameters (moisture content, particle size, ozone concentration, type of biomass and air/ozone flow rate) on ozonization pretreatment of straw in a fixed bed reactor under room conditions. The acid insoluble lignin content of the biomass was reduced in all experiments involving hemicellulose degradation. Near negligible losses of cellulose were observed. Enzymatic hydrolysis yields of up to 88.6% and 57% were obtained compared to 29% and 16% in non-ozonated wheat and rye straw respectively. Moisture content and type of biomass showed the most significant effects on ozonolysis. Additionally, ozonolysis experiments in basic medium with sodium hydroxide evidenced a reduction in solubilization and/or degradation of lignin and reliable cellulose and hemicellulose degradation.

TCF bleaching of soda-anthraquinone and diethanolamine pulp from oil palm empty fruit bunches

The AOpAZRP bleaching sequence (A is an acid treatment, Op an oxygen and peroxide stage, Z an ozone stage, R a reductive treatment and P a peroxide stage) have been applied to oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB) soda-anthraquinone and diethanolamine pulp. On similar Kappa numbers for the two types of pulp (14.2 and 17.3), paper from unbleached soda-anthraquinone pulp exhibited increased tensile index (25.8 Nm/g), stretch (2.35%), burst index (1.69 kN/g), tear index (0.50 mN m(2)/g) and brightness (60.6%) relative to paper for unbleached diethanolamine pulp; but the latter type of pulp exhibited higher viscosity (659 mL/g) than the former. Upon bleaching with the AOpAZRP sequence, diethanolamine pulp exhibited higher viscosity (783 mL/g), and the properties of the paper sheets were close to or even better to those from soda-anthraquinone pulp, namely: 22.2 vs 20.4 Nm/g tensile index, 1.30 vs 1.42 kN/g burst index, 0.71 vs 0.70 mN m(2)/g tear index and 71.3% vs 77.5% brightness. Therefore, the properties of paper from diethanolamine pulp evolved more favourably during bleaching than did those of paper from soda-anthraquinone pulp.