Salicornia dolichostachya organosolv fractionation: towards establishing a halophyte biorefinery

Abstract

An organosolv method was developed for the fractionation of fibers of a halophyte plant in a biorefinery approach. Salicornia dolichostachya was used as raw material allowing the production of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin fractions.

A novel biorefinery concept based on marginally used halophyte biomass

“…Besides pretreatments performed for 30 min at 180 and 200 °C, the lignin content in pretreated pulp was higher with 40% v/v ethanol. In our previous study with the same genus Salicornia dolichostachya , the cellulose content after organosolv pretreament was also higher in the sample pretreated at 200 °C, reaching 51.3% w/w, although it should be mentioned that the cellulose content in the untreated pulp was higher (25.56% w/w) 40 compared to the cellulose content of the untreated pulps of S. ramosissima (16.64% w/w). As such the fold increase of cellulose with the S. ramosissima species was higher compared to the fold increase with S. dolichostachya .…”

“…These results fit well the results of our previous study on the optimization on organosolv pretreatment of S. dolichostachya , where delignification was also temperature dependent with values ranging from 15.3% at 160 °C pretreatment to 56.4% in the pretreatment performed at 200 °C and longer pretreatment of 45 minutes achieved higher delignification (60.7%) when compared to lower pretreatment time (46.1%). 40…”

Bioactive Extracts from Salicornia ramosissima J. Woods Biorefinery as a Source of Ingredients for High-Value Industries

“…In this regard, two concepts can be applied, depending on the plant’s growth stage: green biorefinery from partly lignified plants or more traditional lignocellulose biorefinery from completely lignified plants after seed production. The green biorefinery approach, where the biomass is first fractionated to green juice and fibre residue, often targeting the production of biochemicals, feed products, and biofuels, has been previously tested for Salicornia sinus-persica , Salicornia bigelovii, Salicornia dolichostachya, and Salicornia europaea [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ].…”

Enhancing the Methane Yield of Salicornia spp. via Organosolv Fractionation as Part of a Halophyte Biorefinery Concept

“…S. ramosissima was grown in sandy soil in a greenhouse equipped with an irrigation system with saline water effluent from a recirculating aquaculture system at Riasearch, Portugal. In previous studies, organosolv fractionation of de-juiced green fibers of wild Salicornia dolichostachya harvested on the west coast of Denmark and of Salicornia ramosissima cultivated under controlled greenhouse conditions in Murosa, Portugal (Riasearch) was studied to establish a benchmark for high fractionation efficiency [5,23,24]. In the present study, the methane yield of the cellulose-rich pulp fraction of S. dolichostachya and S. ramosissima generated after organosolv pretreatment was investigated to assess the effectiveness of organosolv fractionation on improving anaerobic digestibility and enhancing biomethane production of halophytic biomass in a biorefinery framework.…”

“…The collected Salicornia biomass was rinsed with freshwater and then subjected to wet fractionation, using a screw press, to obtain a green fiber and a juice fraction. As outlined in [23,24], the de-juiced green fibers were dried at 95 • C for 24 h, milled, and subsequently underwent organosolv fractionation under different experimental conditions: temperatures: 160-200 • C, treatment times: 15-60 min, solvent concentrations: 40-70% v/v ethanol (EtOH).…”