Miscanthus x giganteus as a Source Of Biobased Products Through Organosolv Fractionation: A Mini Review

This paper deals with the chemical treatments with selected organic compounds that have been applied to Miscanthus to upgrade it, for pulp production or fractionation purposes. Organosolv processes have demonstrated their effectiveness as fractionation treatments; therefore special emphasis is placed on these systems and, in particular, those making use of carboxylic acids. That is, Acetosolv process that uses acetic acid-water-hydrochloric acid mixtures as delignifying agents, the process with formic acid-water-hydrochloric acid and the Milox process, which replaces the hydrochloric acid in the medium by hydrogen peroxide, thus forming peroxyacetic acid. Furthermore, we present the results of the characterizations that have been made in relation to extractives and lignin of Miscanthus. It also is analyzed the major changes undergone by lignin during organosolv treatments. Finally, some progresses in the field of TCF bleaching of the cellulose pulps obtained are summarized.