Production of high value-added nanocellulose from agriculture biomass waste

Abstract

With the growing concerns about the environmental effects of fossil-oil based products, the research for a more sustainable source has started. In that context, biomass is a possible sustainable resource since it is an abundant and renewable material. Biomass is defined as any organic material that comes from plants or animals, such as wood, forest and agriculture residues or energy crops. Lignocellulosic biomass is formed by three principal compounds (cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin) that can be used as raw materials for bio-based products. Bionanomaterials are an interesting bio-based products since reducing materials to nanoscale can improve the properties of those products. Cellulose for its properties, such as high mechanical strength, high crystallinity and aspect ratio, and its biodegradability is an interesting material to convert to the nanoscale, producing nanocellulose. Depending on the production process different types of nanocellulose exist, such as cellulose nanocrystals, cellulose nanofibrils or bacterial nanocellulose. Nanocellulose is an interesting nanomaterial for the variety of applications in different industrial fields like biomedical, electronic and composite industries This work is focused on designing a process to produce cellulose nanocrystals and nanofibrils from agriculture biomass wastes. Different alternatives have been studied from bibliographical resources in order to be able to design a sustainable and productive process. The process design is separated in three main stages, selection and preparation of the raw material, pre-treatment of the lignocellulosic biomass to separate its main compounds and production of the nanocellulose