Process analysis of waste bamboo materials using solvent liquefaction

Abstract

Bamboo is one of the most significant biomass resources which has been used in houses, flooring, construction of scaffolding and bridges, etc. The solvent liquefaction process is one promising technique for effective utilization of waste bamboo materials for the lignocelluloses which can be converted to liquid reactive materials as biomass-based materials. Bamboo has the advantage of providing liquefied products with a small range of variances. The components of bamboo have high acidity in the presence of mineral acid catalysts and possess constituents which can react with polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG 400). In this study, waste bamboo materials have been used in liquefaction experiments. The liquefaction process and liquefied residue have been measured according to the liquefied conditions and the surface changes of waste bamboo samples observed by a scanning electron microscope. The changes in the functional groups have been analysed by a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer and the behavior of the crystalline structures of liquefied bamboo has been determined by X-ray diffraction. Other experiments, such as the degree of polymerization, have also been carried out to confirm the results. It was found that increments of the temperature and the amount of the acid catalysts improved the efficiency of liquefaction. Meanwhile, the dissolution time of lignin was significantly shorter than that of cellulose in the solvent liquefaction process of PEG 400.