• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
• /
• 2017.06a
• /
• pp.39-39
• /
• 2017

In Asia, sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is a very important crop for starch production. Approximately 74.3% of the total sweet potato production quantity is produced in Asia (FAO, 2014) and China is the largest producer of sweet potato. Post-harvest management is particularly important because it is difficult to maintain the quality as well as quantity of sweet potatoes. Despite the importance of post-harvest management, researches on sweet potato have been focused on production-related study such as breeding of new variety, improved techniques of cultivation, so there is limited research on storage after harvest. Curing is a normal practice after sweet potato harvest to promote wound healing and extend postharvest storage life. In Korea, harvested sweet potatoes are usually cured for 4 to 7 days at $30-33^{\circ}C$ and 80-95% relative humidity within one week. Since the optimum storage temperature of sweet potato is regarded as $15-20^{\circ}C$, additional facilities and costs are required to raise the temperature for curing. However, the majority of small farmers do not have the capacity to provide additional facilities and costs. This study was initiated to suggest a new curing method to accelerate the wound healing by applying chemical oxidation to the wound surface of sweet potato. Oxidative stress is known to play an important role in the synthesis of secondary metabolites including lignin. In addition, chemical oxidation can be applied to prevent spoilage caused by microorganisms. Powerful gaseous oxidant with excellent penetration ability and superior sterilization effect was selected for this study. Lignification, weight loss, and spoilage rate of artificially wounded sweet potatoes were investigated after oxidant fumigation. There were clear differences in morphological analysis such as lignification pattern, lignin deposition color, and continuity of lignified cell layers between oxidant-fumigated sweet potatoes and control. These results show that gaseous oxidant can be used to supplement or replace the curing practice, to improve shelf-life as well as curing cost reduction.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.22 no.12
• /
• pp.1681-1691
• /
• 2012

This work was conducted to evaluate the effect of dilute sodium hydroxide (NaOH) on barley straw at boiling temperature and fractionation of its biomass components into lignin, hemicellulose, and reducing sugars. To this end, various concentrations of NaOH (0.5% to 2%) were applied for pretreatment of barley straw at $105^{\circ}C$ for 10 min. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy studies revealed that 2% NaOH-pretreated barley straw exposed cellulose fibers on which surface granules were abolished due to comprehensive removal of lignin and hemicellulose. The X-ray diffractometer (XRD) result showed that the crystalline index was increased with increased concentration of NaOH and found a maximum 71.5% for 2% NaOH-pretreated sample. The maximum removal of lignin and hemicellulose was 84.8% and 79.5% from 2% NaOH-pretreated liquor, respectively. Reducing sugar yield was 86.5% from 2% NaOH-pretreated sample using an enzyme dose containing 20 FPU of cellulase, 40 IU of ${\beta}$-glucosidase, and 4 FXU of xylanase/g substrate. The results of this study suggest that it is possible to produce the bioethanol precursor from barley straw using 2% NaOH at boiling temperature.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
• /
• v.47 no.4
• /
• pp.21-29
• /
• 2015

In this study, the feasibility of utilizing wood chips from pitch pine (Pinus rigida) was evaluated for bioethanol production by an organosolv pretreatment and enzymatic saccharification. When wood chips from pitch wood were pretreated with 75% (v/v) ethanol and 1.7% sulfuric acid as a catalyst at H-factor 2000, average pulp yield was 43.3%, which pretreated wood fibers showed higher glucan (55.8%) and lower lignin (12.2%) contents than untreated control (43.9% glucan and 27.8% lignin). After enzymatic saccharification, the organosolv pulps with 56.2% delignification rate reached above 97% conversion rate of cellulose to glucose. These results indicated that increasing the delignification rate causes micro pores on the surface of organosolv pulps resulting in improved the accessibility of enzyme onto the substrate. Moreover, it was in agreement with the SEM examination of wood fibers.

• Proceedings of the Korea Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry Conference
• /
• 1999.11b
• /
• pp.115-119
• /
• 1999

During mechanical pulp production and blcaching wood components, such as extractives, carbohydrates and lignin are dissolved and dispersed into the process waters. These components are called dissolved and colloidal substances(DCS). DCS can accumulate during water circulation and can in turn affect paper machine runnability and also the strength and optical properties of the paper. In this work DCS fraction origination from TMP process were treated with enzymes acting on triglycerides. glucomannans, and lignin and the effect of enzymatic treatments on the water composition as well as sheet properies were evaluated. Lipases were found to modify the chemical structure of the extractives resulting in more hydrophilic fibre surface and subsequent improvement in the sheet strength properties. Mannanase treatment, on the other hand, destabilized pitch. As a result, aggregation of pitch to the fibres was observed which in turn resulted in impaired strength properties. Laccase could effectively polymerize lignans and the reaction products seemed to be sorbed onto the fibres.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.430-436
• /
• 2013

The purpose of this study investigates the effects of electron beam(EB) irradiation on the chemical and morphological properties of Hansan ramie fiber. Hansan ramie fibers were irradiated with electron beam doses of 0, 1, 3, 5 and 10kGy. The effect of electron beam irradiation on the chemical components of fibers as well as the surface chemical and morphological properties were investigated using chemical component analysis methods based on TAPPI standards, XPS, and SEM. The results indicate that the surface layers can be removed under suitable EB irradiation doses. Alcohol-benzene extraction and lignin content increases gradually with an increase in EB irradiation and reaching a maximum at an EB dose of 3kGy, and decreases at 10kGy. The surface chemical changes measured by XPS corresponded to the chemical composition analysis results. The C1 peak and the O/C ratio decreased with the removal of the multi-layer and primary layer by EB irradiation. The SEM images show the inter-fibrillar structure etched by EB irradiation up to 5kGy. At 10kGy, the surface structure of the ramie fiber shows highly aligned and distinctive striations in a longitudinal direction. The removal of these exterior layers of the fiber was confirmed by changes in surface morphology as observed in SEM images.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2011.11a
• /
• pp.114.1-114.1
• /
• 2011

Bioenergy production from lignocellulosic biomass and agriculture wastes have been attracted because of its sustainable and non-edible source. Especially, canola is considered as one of the best feedstock for renewable fuel production. Oil extracted canola and its agriculture residues are reuseable for bioethanol production. However, a pretreatment step is required before enzymatic hydrolysis to disrupt recalcitrant lignocellulosic matrix. To increase the sugar conversion, more efficient pretreatment process was necessary for removal of saccharification barriers such as lignin. Alkaline pretreatment makes the lignocellulose swollen through solvation and induces more porous structure for enzyme access. In our previous work, aqueous ammonia (1~20%) was utilized for alkaline reagent to increase the crystallinity of canola residues pretreatment. In this study, significant factors for efficient soaking in aqueous ammonia pretreatment on canola residues was optimized by using the response surface method (RSM). Based on the fundamental experiments, the real values of factors at the center (0) were determined as follows; $70^{\circ}C$ of temperature, 17.5% of ammonia concentration and 18 h of reaction time in the experiment design using central composition design (CCD). A statistical model predicted that the highest removal yield of lignin was 54% at the following optimized reaction conditions: $72.68^{\circ}C$ of temperature, 18.30% of ammonia concentration and 18.30 h of reaction time. Finally, maximum theoretical yields of soaking in aqueous ammonia pretreatment were 42.23% of glucose and 22.68% of xylose.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
• /
• v.36 no.4
• /
• pp.1243-1252
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study is to investigate the optimum conditions of biomass pretreatment with potassium hydroxide (KOH) for efficient utilization of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin from Miscanthus. The optimization of variables was performed by response surface methodology (RSM). The variation ranges of the parameters for the RSM were potassium hydroxide 0.2~0.8 M, reaction temperature 110~190℃ and reaction time 10~90 min. The optimum conditions of alkali pretreatment from Miscanthus were determined as follows: concentration of KOH 0.47 M, reaction temperature 134℃ and reaction time 65 min. At the optimum conditions, the yield of cellulose from the solid fraction after pretreatment was predicted to be 95% by model prediction. Finally, 66.1 ± 1.1% of cellulose were obtained by verification experiment under the optimum conditions. The order contents of solid extraction were hemicellulose 26.4 ± 0.4%, lignin 3.7 ± 0.1% and ash 0.5 ± 0.04%. The yield of ethanol concentration of 96% was obtained using separated saccharification and fermentation.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.199-204
• /
• 2017

In this study, a study was carried out for the separation of metal ions in lignin extract discharged from the pulp process. alumina powders were mixed with DMAc (N, N-dimethylacetamide) solvent and PESf (Polyethersulfone) polymer, PVP (polyvinylpyrrolidone) dispersant was added and slip casting method was used to prepare the membrane. The membrane was measured for pore size through a CFP (Capillary Flow Porometer) device and the surface and cross-section of the membrane were observed through a FE-SEM (Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope). The flux was calculated by measuring the filtered weight per hour using a separation experiment device. Pore size measurements were performed under increasing pressure from 0 psi to 30 psi. The pore size of the membrane was $0.4{\mu}m$ and the flux decreased from the initial flux value of $6.36kg{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}h^{-1}$ to $1.98kg{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}h^{-1}$ due to the fouling of the membrane. After the permeation experiment, membrane contaminants were removed by simple washing. Separation experiments showed that Na contained in the initial lignin extract was reduced by 69%, Fe was removed by 87%, K by 95%, Ca by 93% and Mg by 96%.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.29 no.6
• /
• pp.565-572
• /
• 2006

This study examined the decomposition of blades and culms of aquatic emergent plant species, Zizania latifolia, Phragmites communis and Typha angustata, which were the most frequent in Lake Paldang. The experiment was carried out from July to December, 2005 in fresh water of lake Paldang using litter bag method. The litter bags had 1.2 mm mesh size and were suspended at 1 m depth of water surface. Remaining mass of blades and culms of each species after 97 days was 21.2% and 22.6% of initial mass in Z. latifolia, 32.5% and 56.4% in P. communis and 44.7% and 38.1 % in T. angustata, respectively. The plant tissue having high N concentration and low C/N exhibited the faster decay rate than the others. However, the tissue of high content of lignin, cellulose, lignin:N, and cullulose:N showed a slow decomposition rate. Water temperature was the most effective environmental factor on the emergent macrophyte litter decomposition in aquatic ecosystems. According to the water temperature, DO, $NO_3^-$-N, and total phosphate concentration were changed in the linear way. The mass loss of plant tissue of emergent macrophytes showed positive relationship with P concentration in water. The experiments on the decomposition of the litter using different mesh sized litter bag did not show significant differences between them. The results suggest that the decomposition of emergent macrophytes in fresh water of lake Paldang, which showed features of lentic and lower part of a stream, was affected by microbial activities better than the micro-invertebrates such as shredders.

• Carbon letters
• /
• v.4 no.4
• /
• pp.180-184
• /
• 2003

The role of KOH in the one-stage KOH-activation of rice straws was studied using FTIR, XPS, TGA, and DTG techniques. It was found that at the impregnation, KOH extracts to some extent the lignin component from rice straw and reacts with hydroxyl groups. On heat-treatment, the impregnated KOH facilitates intermolecular condensation reaction on one hand but retards the thermal degradation of cellulose molecules on the other hand. The oxygen-containing surface functional groups newly created by oxidation of KOH may facilitate the bulk, not controlled, consumption of carbon atoms so that the effective porosities may not be able to be developed by the one-stage activation process.