Methanolysis Fractionation and Catalytic Conversion of Poplar Wood toward Methyl Levulinate, Phenolics, and Glucose

Directional methanolysis of kitchen waste for the co-production of methyl levulinate and fatty acid methyl esters: Catalytic strategy and machine learning modeling

To add value to ordinary kitchen waste, heterogeneous acid-base catalytic methanolysis was conducted to produce high-value liquid biofuels, methyl levulinate (ML) and fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs). Yields of 53.3 % ML and 98.5 % FAME were achieved by methanolysis of kitchen waste under the co-catalysis of carbon-silica composite (C/Si-SO₃H) and zirconium modified ultrastable Y zeolite (Zr/USY). These target products can be easily recovered from the methanolic phase and can be purified at the end of the reaction. The collaborative combination of C/Si-SO₃H and Zr/USY exhibited higher activity than their commercial counterpart. This strategy can be applied to differently composed kitchen waste and kitchen waste with different water content. Product yields were predicted using an artificial neural network method, and the relative importance of the influencing factors was investigated by the random forest method. The systematic insight gained from this work supports the value-added utilization of kitchen waste.

Stepwise separation of poplar wood in oxalic acid/water and γ-valerolactone/water systems

A cost-efficient methodology was developed for a two-step removal of hemicellulose from lignocellulosic biomass, thereby yielding C5 sugars, further separated residue, and high purity cellulose as well as lignin. In the first step of the process, an oxalic acid (OA)-assisted hydrolysis pretreatment was conducted for the selective decomposition of hemicellulose to C5 sugars. The optimized process conditions were as follows: temperature: 160 °C, OA concentration: 1%, holding time: 10 min. Under these conditions, various monosaccharides and other intermediates were obtained and more than 98.32% of the hemicellulose was removed from the original poplar. In the second step of the process, to extract lignin, a low concentration of sulfuric acid was used as a catalyst during the treatment of samples in a γ-valerolactone/H₂O system; more than 91.57% lignin was removed, 82.99% cellulose was retained in the solid cellulose-rich substrates, and 94.45% (i.e., high-purity) cellulose was obtained. This method can be used for efficient fractionation of hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin with the aim of achieving high value utilization of the entire biomass.

A combined treatment method of oxalic acid/H₂O and γ-valerolactone/H₂O can be used for efficient fractionation of hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin.