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Plasma-Assisted Pretreatment of Wheat Straw

Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology volume 163, pages 558–572 (2011)Cite this article

Abstract

O3 generated in a plasma at atmospheric pressure and room temperature, fed with dried air (or oxygen-enriched dried air), has been used for the degradation of lignin in wheat straw to optimize the enzymatic hydrolysis and to get more fermentable sugars. A fixed bed reactor was used combined with a CO2 detector and an online technique for O3 measurement in the fed and exhaust gas allowing continuous measurement of the consumption of O3. This rendered it possible for us to determine the progress of the pretreatment in real time (online analysis). The process time can be adjusted to produce wheat straw with desired lignin content because of the online analysis. The O3 consumption of wheat straw and its polymeric components, i.e., cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, as well as a mixture of these, dry as well as with 50% water, were studied. Furthermore, the process parameters dry matter content and milled particle size (the extent to which the wheat straw was milled) were investigated and optimized. The developed methodology offered the advantage of a simple and relatively fast (0.5–2 h) pretreatment allowing a dry matter concentration of 45–60%. FTIR measurements did not suggest any structural effects on cellulose and hemicellulose by the O3 treatment. The cost and the energy consumption for lignin degradation of 100 g of wheat straw were calculated.

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Acknowledgement

We want to thank Dr. David Plackett for his valuable comments on the FTIR and particle size measurements as well as Annette Eva Jensen, Ingelis Larsen, and Tomas Fernqvist for technical assistance. This project was funded by the Danish Energy Foundation in Copenhagen, Denmark (EFP07, J.nr.33033-0043).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biosystems Division, Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, Technical University of Denmark-DTU, P.O. Box 49, 4000, Roskilde, Denmark

    Nadja Schultz-Jensen, Henrik Bindslev & Anne Belinda Thomsen

  2. Plasma Physics and Technology Programme, Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, Technical University of Denmark-DTU, P.O. Box 49, 4000, Roskilde, Denmark

    Frank Leipold

Authors
  1. Nadja Schultz-Jensen
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  2. Frank Leipold
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  3. Henrik Bindslev
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  4. Anne Belinda Thomsen
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Correspondence to Nadja Schultz-Jensen.

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Schultz-Jensen, N., Leipold, F., Bindslev, H. et al. Plasma-Assisted Pretreatment of Wheat Straw. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 163, 558–572 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-010-9062-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-010-9062-5

Keywords

  • Pretreatment method
  • Wheat straw
  • Lignin
  • Plasma
  • Discharge
  • Biofuel
  • Sustainable energy
  • Ozonisation