Kraft Pulping of Eucalyptus globulus: Kinetics of Residual Delignification

Evaluation of agave fiber delignification by means of microscopy techniques and image analysis

Recently, the use of different types of natural fibers to produce paper and textiles from agave plants has been proposed. Agave atrovirens can be a good source of cellulose and lignin; nevertheless, the microstructural changes that happen during delignification have scarcely been studied. The aim of this work was to study the microstructural changes that occur during the delignification of agave fibers by means of microscopy techniques and image analysis. The fibers of A. atrovirens were obtained from leaves using convective drying, milling, and sieving. Fibers were processed using the Acetosolv pulping method at different concentrations of acetic acid; increasing acid concentration promoted higher levels of delignification, structural damage, and the breakdown of fiber clumps. Delignification followed by spectrometric analysis and microstructural studies were carried out by light, confocal laser scanning and scanning electron microscopy and showed that the delignification process follows three stages: initial, bulk, and residual. Microscopy techniques and image analysis were efficient tools for microstructural characterization during delignification of agave fibers, allowing quantitative evaluation of the process and the development of linear prediction models. The data obtained integrated numerical and microstructural information that could be valuable for the study of pulping of lignocellulosic materials.

Consecutively preparing d-xylose, organosolv lignin, and amorphous ultrafine silica from rice husk

Rice husk is an abundant agricultural by-product reaching the output of 80 million tons annually in the world. The most common treatment method of rice husk is burning or burying, which caused serious air pollution and resource waste. In order to solve this problem, a new method is proposed to comprehensively utilize the rice husk in this paper. Firstly, the D-xylose was prepared from the semicellulose via dilute acid hydrolysis. Secondly, the lignin was separated via organic solvent pulping from the residue. Finally, the amorphous ultrafine silica was prepared via pyrolysis of the residue produced in the second process. In this way, the three main contents of rice husk (semicellulose, lignin, and silica) are consecutively converted to three fine chemicals, without solid waste produced. The yields of D-xylose and organosolv lignin reach 58.2% and 58.5%, respectively. The purity and specific surface of amorphous ultrafine silica reach 99.92% and 225.20 m²/g.

Preparing spherical lignin from rice husk

Lignin is one of the important branched amorphous polymers, which generally has the irregular and fractal morphology. The preparation of regular sphere of lignin needs long steps and special conditions. In this study, the regular sphere of lignin can be simply prepared from rice husk (RH) under certain conditions. Namely, RH is mixed with 35% ethanol aqueous solution in the proportion of 1:10 (g:mL), non-isothermally heated to 493 K and kept for 5 h. After filtration and air-drying at room temperature, the regular lignin sphere with the diameter of 100-400 nm is obtained. The regular sphere of lignin has the potential utilization in fields such as reactive functional materials, photo sensing materials and surface active materials in cosmetics. The mechanism of formation of the regular spherical lignin is proposed and discussed in this paper.