The Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI), is a research institute at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Founded in 1929 as the Institute of Paper Chemistry in Appleton, Wisconsin, it moved to Georgia Tech's campus in 1989, and integrated its operations with the university on July 1, 2003, known then as the Institute of Paper Science and Technology (IPST). In 2014, the IPST became the Renewable Bioproducts Institute.The organization is a link between Georgia Tech and the international paper industry; it focuses its research on pulp and paper processes, refining forest biomass into sustainable fuels, and creating new biomaterials in order to open new markets.
Paper cups are typically made by laminating PE or PLA onto the surface of paper. PE and PLA are hydrophobic and easy for film formation. However, recycling of PE- or PLA-coated paper cups is difficult. Polyacrylate (PA)-based polymers may be an alternative to PE and PLA, and recycling of polyacrylate-coated paper cups may be considered if the barrier film can be disintegrated. The recyclability of paper cups coated with PE-, PLA-, and PA-based polymers was investigated by pilot pulper and screen. Furthermore, mechanical treatments were investigated for the removal of remaining polyacrylate flakes (RPF). The pulping yield of PA-coated paper cups was higher than that of PE-or PLA-coated paper cups, since PE or PLA films were discarded as hole screen rejects. In the case of PA-coated paper cups, RPF could not be separated by slot screening due to its deformability. However, RPF must be treated properly since it can result in specks on the surface of paper. RPF could be fragmented effectively, with over 95 % disappearing after one pass of kneading and 10 min of beating. Consequently, it may be possible to use PA-coated paper cups as a raw material in the paper recycling process.
Lignocellulosic biomass, a potentially important renewable organic source of energy and chemical feedstock, resists degradation to glucose in industrial hydrolysis processes and thus requires expensive thermochemical pretreatments. Understanding the mechanism of biomass breakdown during these pretreatments will lead to more efficient use of biomass. By combining multiple probes of structure, sensitive to different length scales, with molecular dynamics simulations, we reveal two fundamental processes responsible for the morphological changes in biomass during steam explosion pretreatment: cellulose dehydration and lignin-hemicellulose phase separation. We further show that the basic driving forces are the same in other leading thermochemical pretreatments, such as dilute acid pretreatment and ammonia fiber expansion.
Chapter 10 Fundamentals of Biomass Pretreatment by Fractionation Poulomi Sannigrahi, Poulomi Sannigrahi Institute of Paper Science and Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA BioEnergy Science Center, Oak Ridge, USASearch for more papers by this authorArthur J. Ragauskas, Arthur J. Ragauskas Institute of Paper Science and Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA BioEnergy Science Center, Oak Ridge, USASearch for more papers by this author Poulomi Sannigrahi, Poulomi Sannigrahi Institute of Paper Science and Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA BioEnergy Science Center, Oak Ridge, USASearch for more papers by this authorArthur J. Ragauskas, Arthur J. Ragauskas Institute of Paper Science and Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA BioEnergy Science Center, Oak Ridge, USASearch for more papers by this author Book Editor(s):Charles E. Wyman, Charles E. Wyman Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering and Center for Environmental Research and Technology, University of California, Riverside, USA BioEnergy Science Center, Oak Ridge, USASearch for more papers by this author First published: 05 April 2013 https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470975831.ch10Citations: 42 Series Editor(s): Christian V. Stevens, Christian V. Stevens Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Ghent, BelgiumSearch for more papers by this author AboutPDFPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShareShare a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Summary This chapter focuses on organosolv pretreatment as a method for biomass fractionation to recover high-quality streams of each of the major biomass components. It provides a short historical perspective on organosolv pulping and pretreatment. Different solvents and catalysts used in organosolv pretreatment and results from biomass fractionation are discussed with an emphasis on ethanol, as it is an excellent solvent when the production of bio-ethanol is desired. The chemistry of organosolv delignification, a key component of biomass fractionation by this method, and the nature of organosolv lignin are described. The chapter also discusses other aspects, including modifications in the structure and crystallinity of cellulose after organosolv pretreatment and the co-products of biomass fractionation by ethanol organosolv pretreatment. Citing Literature Aqueous Pretreatment of Plant Biomass for Biological and Chemical Conversion to Fuels and Chemicals RelatedInformation
Lignocellulosic materials, such as wood, grass, and agricultural and forest residues, are potential resources for the production of bioethanol. The biochemical process of converting biomass to bioethanol typically consists of three main steps: pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, and fermentation. During the whole process, pretreatment is probably the most crucial step since it has a large impact on the efficiency of the overall bioconversion. The aim of pretreatment is to disrupt recalcitrant structures of cellulosic biomass to make cellulose more accessible to the enzymes that convert carbohydrate polymers into fermentable sugars. Physical, physical–chemical, chemical, and biological processes have been used for pretreatment of lignocellulosic materials. This chapter summarizes the leading technologies in chemical pretreatment on softwood, particularly pine species, which generally show relatively higher recalcitrance than hardwood, grass, and other lignocellulosic materials. Different chemical pretreatment techniques, including dilute acid pretreatment, alkaline hydrolysis, wet oxidation, sulfite pretreatment to overcome recalcitrance of lignocellulose (SPORL), organosolv, ionic liquids pretreatment, and ozonolysis process are intensively introduced and discussed. In this chapter, the key points are focused on the structural changes primarily in cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin during the above leading pretreatment technologies.
