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The nanocellulose biorefinery: woody versus herbaceous agricultural wastes for NCC production

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Abstract

In the present work two agricultural residues (apple tree pruning and pea stalks) were studied as sources of nanocellulose. Different pretreatments that might be used in a biorefinery were applied to these lignocellulosic materials: autohydrolysis, organosolv (acetosolv) and alkaline pretreatments. After conventional bleaching, the resulting cellulosic fractions were submitted to a classical acid hydrolysis for nanocellulose crystal (NCC) production. The results showed that after applying different pretreatments, the resulting NCCs had different lengths (from 300 to 676 nm), surface charges (from 17 to 98 μmol acid groups/g NCC), purity (from 0.3 to 11.6% w/w of inorganics), crystallinity indexes and even allomorphism. These results highlighted the importance that cellulose source and particularly the applied pretreatments have on nanocrystal properties and suggest how biorefining pathways for lignocellulosic materials could customize such NCC features as surface reactivity or suitability for chemical modification.

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Acknowledgments

Authors thank the Department of Education, Universities and Investigation of the Basque Government (Postdoctoral Development Program) for financially supporting this work. LGP2 is part of the LabEx Tec 21 (Investissements d’Avenir—Grant Agreement No. ANR-11-LABX-0030) and of the Énergies du Futur and PolyNat Carnot Institutes (Investissements d’Avenir—Grant Agreements Nos. ANR-11-CARN-007-01 and ANR-11-CARN-030-01).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université Grenoble Alpes, Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Science and Graphic Arts (LGP2), F-38000, Grenoble, France

    Araceli García, Mohamed Naceur Belgacem & Julien Bras

  2. Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Plaza Europa, 1, 20018, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain

    Araceli García & Jalel Labidi

  3. Université Grenoble Alpes, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), F-38000, Grenoble, France

    Mohamed Naceur Belgacem & Julien Bras

  4. Institut Universitaire de France (IUF), F-75005, Paris, France

    Julien Bras

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  1. Araceli García
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  2. Jalel Labidi
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  3. Mohamed Naceur Belgacem
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  4. Julien Bras
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Correspondence to Araceli García or Julien Bras.

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García, A., Labidi, J., Belgacem, M.N. et al. The nanocellulose biorefinery: woody versus herbaceous agricultural wastes for NCC production. Cellulose 24, 693–704 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-016-1144-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-016-1144-2

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