• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.102-108
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• 2008

At the University of Maine, a hemicellulose pre-extraction technology is now being investigated to improve pulp yields, reduce the organic and inorganic load for liquor recovery, and create a feed stream for the generation of new biomaterials. It is important to understand the composition of unextracted wood, extracted wood, and pulping extracts in the design of an economically viable pilot-scale ethanol plant. For analysis of wood pulp composition, the total analytical mass balance closure was 100.6, 100.3, and 81.6% for unextracted chips, extracted chips, and pulping extracts from HPLC-H column analysis. Meanwhile, the total analytical mass balance from the HPLC-P column was 97.8, 86.3, and 80.7%, respectively. This slight variability between H- and P-column results for analytical mass balance may be within the experimental error of the measurement. The data generated by this analysis are important to further design work in commercializing this process.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.60-71
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• 2014

This study was conducted to identify the potential of rape stalk as a raw material for biorefinery process of rape flower. At first, rape stalk (RS) was immersed in distilled water (DW), acetic acid (AA), oxalic acid (OA), sulfuric acid (SA) and sodium hydroxide (SH) solutions, and the content of reducing sugars liberated from immersed RS was analyzed. Glucose, xylose, arabinose and sucrose were detected varying with the immersion type. In particular, 1% AA-immersion of RS for 72 hr was the most effective conditions to liberate glucose from RS. Secondly, the RS residues were used for elementary analysis and fabrication of fuel pellets. In addition to the solution type, concentration of immersion solutions (0%, 1%, 2%) and immersion time (24, 72, 120 hr) were used as experimental factors. The contents of nitrogen, sulfur and chlorine reduced effectively through the immersion of RS in DW, AA and OA solutions. For properties of RS-based pellets, bulk density and higher heating value of RS-based pellets greatly increased with the immersion of RS, and the qualities were much higher than those of the A-grade pellet of the EN standards. Ash content decreased remarkably through the immersion of RS, and was satisfied with the A-grade pellet standard. Durability was negatively affected by the immersion of RS, and did not reached to B-grade of the EN standard. In conclusion, acid immersion of RS can be a pretreatment method for the production of fuel pellet and bioethanol, but use of the immersed RS for the production of high-quality pellets might be restricted due to low durability of immersed-RS pellets. Therefore, further studies, such as investigation of detailed immersion conditions, fabrication of mixed pellets with wooden materials and addition of binders, are needed to resolve the problems.