Sulfur balance of sulfur dioxide-ethanol-water fractionation of sugarcane straw

Xiang You; Adriaan van Heiningen; Herbert Sixta; Mikhail Iakovlev

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2017.06.047

Sulfur balance of sulfur dioxide-ethanol-water fractionation of sugarcane straw

Bioresour Technol. 2017 Oct:241:998-1002. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2017.06.047. Epub 2017 Jun 10.

Authors

Xiang You¹, Adriaan van Heiningen², Herbert Sixta³, Mikhail Iakovlev⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Forest Products Technology, Aalto University, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Department of Forest Products Technology, Aalto University, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland; Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Maine, 5737 Jenness Hall, Orono, ME 04469-5737, USA.
³ Department of Forest Products Technology, Aalto University, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland.
⁴ Department of Forest Products Technology, Aalto University, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland; American Process Inc., 750 Piedmont Av. NE, Atlanta, GA 30308, USA.

PMID: 28637168
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2017.06.047

Abstract

The sulfur balance of SO₂-ethanol-water (AVAP®) fractionation of sugarcane (SC) straw was investigated. Hydrogen sulfite and sulfite anions are nearly absent in the liquors, despite cations present in straw, whose effect is thus limited to neutralization of lignosulfonic acids decreasing the acidity. Higher degree of sulfonation was observed for dissolved straw lignin compared to wood lignin (0.8-0.9 vs. 0.25 S/C9). Sulfur dioxide amounts of 0.9-1.2, 4.1-4.3 and 44-49g per o.d.kg straw were bound to pulp, precipitated lignin and lignosulfonic acid, respectively, while the rest of SO₂ was recovered by distillation from the spent fractionation suspensions.

Keywords: AVAP® process; Mass balance; SO(2) recovery; SO(2)-ethanol-water fractionation; Sugarcane straw.

MeSH terms

Ethanol
Lignin
Refuse Disposal
Saccharum*
Sulfur
Sulfur Dioxide*
Water

Substances

Water
Sulfur Dioxide
Ethanol
Sulfur
Lignin