Perennial grass (Arundo donax L.) as a feedstock for thermo-chemical conversion to energy and materials

Energy and chemical conversion of five Australian lignocellulosic feedstocks into bio-crude through liquefaction

“…Similar HHV of AD, Ba, BBS, PT were reported in the literature. 10,23,27,28 The results demonstrate improvement in HHV of bio crude oils from feedstocks. These improvements translate into appreciable increases in higher heating value.…”

“…23 However, the intensity of these groups in SR was decreasing with the temperature increase due to their decomposition into oil phase. The broad peak between 3200 and 3500 cm À1 corresponded to a combination of aliphatic and aromatic O-H, C-H and N-H stretching groups.…”

“…This approach recognises that the energy balance has shortcomings in accounting for the enthalpies of reactions involved in liquefaction. This is mainly due to the plethora of reactions postulated to be occurring during liquefaction, 23 not all have been thoroughly characterised. The kinetics of these reactions is in itself is a burgeoning area of study.…”

“…[23][24][25][26][27] However, little research is conducted on the evaluation of liquefaction processing by assessing energy conversion efficiency. Liquefaction is in competition with pyrolysis conversion process in terms of energy efficiency and so more detailed information about energy conversion is required.…”

Novel thermophilic hemicellulases for the conversion of lignocellulose for second generation biorefineries

“…A specific example is the degradation of glucurono-xylan [18], the major hemicellulose of Arundo donax (giant reed) a fast growing and low input-high yielding energy crop [19] The enzymatic degradation of this linear polymer of ␤-1,4-linked d-xylopyranosyl units frequently substituted with ␣-1,2 linked glucuronate residues, which are often methylated on the C4 (MeGlcA) [20] occurs by the concerted action of xylanases and ␣-glucuronidases; thus, we embarked in the search for novel enzymes of this kind in the genomes of (hyper) thermophilic microorganisms which are known for containing unique (hemi) cellulolytic systems [21][22][23][24][25][26].…”