Strategy of Coniferous Needle Biorefinery into Value-Added Products to Implement Circular Bioeconomy Concepts in Forestry Side Stream Utilization.

Sustainable development goals require a reduction in the existing heavy reliance on fossil resources. Forestry can be considered a key resource for the bioeconomy, providing timber, energy, chemicals (including fine chemicals), and various other products. Besides the main product, timber, forestry generates significant amounts of different biomass side streams. Considering the unique and highly complex chemical composition of coniferous needle/greenery biomass, biorefinery strategies can be considered as prospective possibilities to address top segments of the bio-based value pyramid, addressing coniferous biomass side streams as a source of diverse chemical substances with applications as the replacement of fossil material-based chemicals, building blocks, food, and feed and applications as fine chemicals. This study reviews biorefinery methods for coniferous tree forestry biomass side streams, exploring the production of value-added products. Additionally, it discusses the potential for developing further biorefinery strategies to obtain products with enhanced value.

Structure and properties of cationic starches synthesized by using 3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyltrimethylammonium chloride.

Cationic starches (CS) with preserved microgranular structure were prepared from potato starch, with 3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyltrimethyl ammonium chloride as cationic reagent. CS with degree of substitution (DS) and reaction efficiency (RE) ranging from 0.05 to 0.84 and from 47.1% to 99.6%, respectively, were obtained by semidry cationization. The influence of the composition of reaction mixture on RE was investigated. CS with highest DS of 0.84 were obtained by using CaO additive. Meanwhile, without addition of CaO cationic starches with maximum DS of 0.28 were synthesized. Modified starches were characterized by means of Fourier transform infrared and X-ray powder diffraction spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, histological examination, Brabender viscoamilography, and solubility studies. It was confirmed that by addition of CaO into reaction mixture, the cationization proceeded in the deeper layers of the granules and attached cationic groups were more evenly distributed in the granule volume. Consequently, CS with high DS and cold water solubility were obtained.

Adsorption of rosmarinic acid from aqueous solution on chitosan powder.

In present study the adsorption of rosmarinic acid (RA) on chitosan (CH) powder from aqueous solution have been investigated in order to obtain insoluble RA-CH complexes with high amount of RA. The pseudo-second kinetic model and the Langmuir adsorption model described the kinetic and equilibrium adsorption of RA on CH with high correlation coefficients. With the increase of adsorption temperature the rate of adsorption decreased but amount of adsorbed RA increased. It was established that adsorption of RA on CH occurred in two steps, and relevant adsorption mechanism was proposed. The formation of RA-CH with the molar ratio of RA to CH equal to 0.11, 0.22. 0.39, 0.6 and 0.8 was investigated by FT-IR and steady-state fluorescence spectroscopic techniques. By the increase of RA amount in RA-CH complexes the character of both FT-IR and fluorescence spectra changed. The antioxidant activity of RA-CH was investigated by ABTS method and showed that RA-CH having higher amount of adsorbed RA has prolonged antioxidant activity.