ABSTRACT
Atmospheric pressure O2 plasma was used to produce ozone in order to treat sugarcane bagasse as a function of particle sizes. The fixed bagasse moisture content was 50%. The delignification efficiency had small improvement due to ozonation process as a function of particle size, varying from 75 up to 80%. Few amounts of hemicellulose were removed, but the ozonation has not been affected significantly with particle size variance as well (from 30 up to 35%). The cellulose presented some losses below 1.0 mm size (8-15%) which was an unexpected result. The conversion of cellulose content into free sugar has shown a significant increase as the particle size has diminished as well. The best condition of the bagasse particle size was for 0.08 mm. For this case, a great quantity of cellulose (78.8%) was converted into glucose. Optical absorption spectroscopy was applied to determine ozone concentrations in real time where the samples with typical bagasse particle sizes equal or below to 0.5 mm had shown a better absorption of ozone in comparison with greater particle size samples.
Subject(s)
Cellulose/chemistry , Ozone/chemistry , Saccharum/enzymology , Atmospheric Pressure , Biomass , Particle Size , Plasma/chemistryABSTRACT
Sugarcane bagasse samples were pretreated with ozone via atmospheric O2 pressure plasma. A delignification efficiency of approximately 80 % was observed within 6 h of treatment. Some hemicelluloses were removed, and the cellulose was not affected by ozonolysis. The quantity of moisture in the bagasse had a large influence on delignification and saccharification after ozonation pretreatment of the bagasse, where 50 % moisture content was found to be best for delignification (65 % of the cellulose was converted into glucose). Optical absorption spectroscopy was applied to determine ozone concentrations in real time. The ozone consumption as a function of the delignification process revealed two main reaction phases, as the ozone molecules cleave the strong carbon-carbon bonds of aromatic rings more slowly than the weak carbon-carbon bonds of aliphatic chains.
Subject(s)
Atmospheric Pressure , Cellulose/chemistry , Ozone/chemistry , Plasma Gases/chemistry , Saccharum/chemistry , Biomass , Hydrolysis , Kinetics , Lignin/chemistryABSTRACT
Surface modification of natural fibers has been made using different methods. In this paper, cellulose fibers from sugarcane bagasse were bleached and modified by zirconium oxychloride in situ. The chemically modified cellulose fibers were compared to those of bleached ones. Cellulose fibers were modified with ZrO(2).nH(2)O nanoparticles through the use of zirconium oxychloride in acidic medium in the presence of cellulose fibers using urea as the precipitating agent. The spatial distribution characterization of hydrous zirconium oxide on cellulose fibers was carried out by combining both processing and image analyses obtained by SEM and statistical methodologies. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and thermogravimetric analysis (TG) were also used to characterize the nanocomposite. Results indicated that ZrO(2).nH(2)O nanoparticles of about 30-80nm diameter deposited on cellulose fibers were heterogeneously dispersed.