Two-Step Thermochemical Cellulose Hydrolysis With Partial Neutralization for Glucose Production.

Cellulose hydrolysis processes using concentrated acid usually involve two steps in order to obtain high glucose yields. The first step (pre-treatment) decrystallizes cellulose while the second step (post-hydrolysis) converts the amorphous cellulose to glucose. The two-step process developed by the Industrial Research Chair on Cellulosic Ethanol and Biocommodities and its industrial partner CRB Innovations Inc.

Lignin extraction--reassessment of the severity factor with respect to hydroxide concentration.

Steam processes have often been associated with a severity factor, correlating the cooking temperature, time and catalyst used in the process. Although equations for treatments with and without acid catalyst have been suggested, there is so far no simple equation allowing a precise estimation of the amount of lignin extracted from lignocellulosic biomass. In this work, a new version of the severity factor equation is proposed.

UV-Vis as quantification tool for solubilized lignin following a single-shot steam process.

In this short communication, UV/Vis was used as an analytical tool for the quantification of lignin concentrations in aqueous mediums. A significant correlation was determined between absorbance and concentration of lignin in solution. For this study, lignin was produced from different types of biomasses (willow, aspen, softwood, canary grass and hemp) using steam processes.