Cold alkaline extraction of Elephant grass for optimal subsequent extraction of hemicelluloses and energy production

Abstract There is growing scientific and industrial interest in obtaining useful substances by fractionating lignocellulosic biomass from non-food plant crops for use the bioenergy industry. The primary goals are to ensure process sustainability comply with principles of circular economy. In this work, we optimized energy production Elephant grass previously using cold alkaline extraction remove its hemicellulose fraction. contains a high proportion lignin (20%) hemicelluloses (27.4%), therefore an excellent alternative wood materials direct burning. Energy was identify best operating conditions among those tested, namely: alkali concentrations 80–120 g NaOH L –1 , temperatures 20–40 °C, treatment times 30–90 min. Using optimum thus established (viz., 100 30 min) raised heating value (HHV) 19.151 MJ kg (i.e., 4% relative starting material). Also, it allowed content elemental C be preserved, that H increased 4.86% and, more environmentally significant, most sulphur (46.9%) removed solid phase upon treatment. Cold raw material additionally enabled relatively selective separation fraction cellulose fractions. Thus, 30.1% all dissolved liquor made valorizable while 93.0% 82.1% present remained phase.