The Effect of Thermomechanical Pretreatment on the Structure and Properties of Lignin-Rich Plant Biomass

Abstract

The cooperative thermomechanical properties of plant-derived polymers have been studied insufficiently, although this feedstock has a very high potential. In the present paper, we analyzed the changes in the structure and physicochemical properties of lignin-rich biomass induced by thermomechanical pretreatment. Low-temperature treatment allows one to retain the original supramolecular structure of the cell walls, while an appreciably high disintegration degree is reached. This increases the reactivity of the material in the subsequent heterogeneous reactions. Mechanical pretreatment at medium temperatures (10 °C), when almost all cell wall polymers except for low-molecular-weight lignin are in the glassy state, enhances the mobility of cell wall polymers and causes sufficient cellulose disordering, while the specific surface area is not significantly increased. High-temperature pretreatment of reed biomass is accompanied by pore formation and lignin release from the cell wall structure, which opens up new prospects for using this biomass as a matrix to produce core−shell-structured sorbents of heavy metals. The energy consumed by mechanochemical equipment for the activation of reed biomass was determined.

Keywords

• thermo-mechanochemical pretreatment
• lignocellulosic waste
• cell wall structure
• lignin-rich biomass
• enzymatic hydrolysis