Location: Sustainable Biofuels and Co-products Research
Project Number: 8072-41000-110-003-R
Project Type: Reimbursable Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Nov 15, 2020
End Date: Nov 14, 2024
Objective:
(1) Extract and solubilize cellulosic fraction from agricultural biomass and agricultural processing by-products and understand the role of salts on their solution and thermal properties, (2) Study the interaction of cellulosic fraction with bio-fiber gum, and other food gums and (3) prepare and characterize the biodegradable film from cellulosic fraction.
Approach:
Isolation of cellulosic fraction: The starch from the plant processing by-products (sorghum bran/bagasse/biomass, corn bran/stover and wheat bran/straw will be removed by a-amylase treatment and washing the gelatinized starch with hot water. Then the de-starched material will be treated with alkali to cleave and solubilize the arabinoxylans and any other alkali soluble molecules. All the alkali soluble materials will be separated from the insoluble materails by centrifugation and discarded. The left over solid residue will be processed by several shearing cycles. The final processed residue will be collected, suspended in water and drum dried to obtain the final CRF.
Solubilization of cellulose rich fraction by Zinc Chloride: Cellulosic fraction will be mixed with distilled water to form a paste. Parallely, predetermined weights of Zinc chloride will be dissolved in distilled water to make solutions with 50 to 80 weight percentage. The Zinc chloride salt solution will be added to the cellulose suspension and mixed thoroughly to make Zinc cellulose solution. The viscosity of this mixture (Zinc cellulose solution) will be measured along with the viscoelatic properties.
Nanofiber film formation: Calcium chloride will be added to the Zinc cellulose solution and films will be casted. The film will then be fixed on a frame and air dried at the room temperature. Subseqently, the film will be placed in a water bath to remove excess salts and later soaked in glycerol. Finally, the film will be dried for further characterization.
