Archives in Chemical Research Open Access

Wheat straw lignin for value added by-products: a future biofuel

9^th Edition of International Conference on Biofuels and Bioenergy

March 29-30, 2018 Edinburgh, Scotland

Nasim Ramezani and Mohini Sain

University of Toronto, Ontario

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Arch Chem Res

Abstract:

It is predicted that the world population will be increased to 9 billion by 2050. Therefore, the next energy goals of the 21st century must be to provide reasonable energy services for the comfort of all human beings. Among all sources of energies, renewable energies are anticipated to change the future of energy flows (Balakshin et al., 2014). Each year, half of produced world biomass is lignocellulosic biomass, which has a weight around 1020 billion dry tons (Zhao et al, 2009). While lignin can be efficiently used in pharma and food sector, it is burnt to produce heat and recover pulping chemicals in paper mills industry (Holladay et al, 2007). In this study, high purified lignin was extracted by Organosolv method from wheat straw. In extraction process, no catalysts were applied, Therefore, the carbohydrates impurities caused by acids were the least. On the other hand, all the ethanol applied in the process was recovered. So, the extraction was done with the minimum amount of solvent and energy. The extracted lignin was characterized by NMR, and FTIR. Moreover, the extraction was done in the bigger facility (20L Parr reactor) for mass production. Furthermore, the biodegradation of lignin by Bjerkandera adusta was investigated. In the FTIR spectrum existence of different lignin bonds including C-C, C=O, C=C, and aromatic rings were confirmed. Same groups were observed in the C NMR spectrum. Furthermore, the presence of carboxylic acid, aldehyde, phenolic hydroxyl, aromatic rings syringyl, and guaiacyl units were determined. The growth of Bjerkandera adusta on PDA culture media consist of 2% extracted lignin, makes this fungus a good candidate for lignin biodegradation (Negr�£o et al., 2015). These characteristics give the wheat straw lignin a good opportunity to be applied as a renewable polymer (W.J.J. Hujgen et al., 2014). nasim.ramezani@mail.utoronto