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Sugar Production from Cardboard Waste by Two-Step Acid Hydrolysis Using Ionic Liquid

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Abstract

A significant amount of paper residue has continuously been discarded worldwide. This rsidue encompasses a high-cellulose content that can be converted into value-added chemicals. Hydrolysis can be applied as an effective method to produce chemicals from lignocellulosic materials. This work presents a study on biomass waste valorization that uses acid hydrolysis to convert the cellulose residue into raw materials. Commercial cardboard waste was used as a lignocellulosic material source to produce fermentable sugar. The original material was crushed to about 1 mm pieces before being submitted to the hydrolysis reaction. It was found 4.8 mg of calcium ion (Ca2+) per gram of cardboard by means of a complexometric method using direct titration. The calcium ion acted as an inhibitor for the action of yeasts during the fermentation process, and then Ca2+ ions were removed by calcium sulfate decantation. A low-cost ionic liquid (n-butylammonium acetate) was used to enhance the hydrolysis reactional media. The fermentable sugar was obtained by two-step cellulose hydrolysis. Sugar content was assessed by both the Fehling test and the 3,5-dinitro-salicylic acid (DNS) method. Without ionic liquid, the maximum sugar concentration was 6.09 and 0.85 g/L, respectively, to 10% and 35% sulfuric acid concentrations. In the presence of ionic liquid, the corresponding sugar concentrations were 6.56 and 5.68 g/L. The whole reaction conversion achieved 30%, which must be considered significant for cellulose encompassed in the cardboard waste. The high amount of sugar obtained by acid hydrolysis of cardboard waste using ionic liquid points to a proper recovery and discarding for cardboard waste. Results show paper residues as an alternative source to sugar production, which is feasible to be converted into bioenergy and biofuel.

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Data Availability

Data and materials were obtained during the study by the authors. No data, text, or theories by others are presented. The datasets generated during the current study are not publicly available due to copyright restrictions, but they are available from the corresponding author on a representative request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge suggestions from Dr. Bruna Pratto for experimental preparation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, University Center FEI, Av Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco, 3972, Assunção, São Bernardo Do Campo, SP, 09850-901, Brazil

    Erickson Soares da Silva, Giovanna Pereira Policarpo, Luccas Mori Antonio, Marcela Sales Palma, Adriana Célia Lucarini, Ricardo Belchior Torres & Ronaldo Gonçalves dos Santos

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  1. Erickson Soares da Silva
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  2. Giovanna Pereira Policarpo
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  3. Luccas Mori Antonio
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Contributions

ESdS: cardboard characterization and pre-treatment, acid hydrolysis and ionic liquid synthesis. GPP: cardboard characterization, acid hydrolysis and pre-treatment, and NMR analysis. LMA: acid hydrolysis and sugar determination. MSP: acid hydrolysis and sugar determination. ACL: experimental supervision, result discussion, and review of the manuscript draft. RBT: experimental suggestions and review of the manuscript draft. RGdS: general supervision, experimental assistance, analysis and discussion of results, and final manuscript writing.

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Correspondence to Ronaldo Gonçalves dos Santos.

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da Silva, E.S., Policarpo, G.P., Antonio, L.M. et al. Sugar Production from Cardboard Waste by Two-Step Acid Hydrolysis Using Ionic Liquid. Waste Biomass Valor 15, 2637–2649 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-023-02300-7

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