BABET-REAL5 research results presented at Symposium in Lund, Sweden
On 10 November 2017, Dr. Aleta Duque from the Biofuels Unit of the Department of Energy of CIEMAT, Spain, presented her research results at the 3rd Lund Symposium on lignocellulose valorisation - Agricultural biomass in the bioeconomy in a poster presentation.
The conference is organized by the Lund University Biobased Industry Center and addresses each year another aspect of lignocellulosic biomass applications. In the 3rd Lund Symposium, more than 80 participants came together to discuss questions about the provision and demand of biomass, the processing thereof and the production of new biobased products. Moreover, the symposium included two poster sessions where Dr. Aleta Duque could present her work.
In the poster "Influence of catalyst type and temperature on the enzymatic hydrolysis of extrusion pretreated barley straw", for the pretreatment of extrusion with neutralization and filtration of barley straw, the effects of the basic solutions NaOH and KOH in combination with three different temperature conditions (70, 90 and 110 °C) were compared. It could be shown, that sodium hydroxide produces a bigger deacetylation of the hemicelluloses and a solubilization of lignin and sugars slightly bigger than with potassium hydroxide. The temperature had a positive effect on the enzymatic digestion of the pretreated substrates, but lead to some degree of mass loss under the most severe conditions. All factors considered, the best pretreatment conditions were established at 90 °C and using NaOH.
Besides the poster presentation, further activities were taken to disseminate the BABET-REAL5 project among the symposium participants, like the distribution of information leaflets.
The Biofuels Unit of CIEMAT has extensive research experience in process development for the production of ethanol and other high added value products from biomass and therefore participates regularly in fora like the 3rd Lund Symposium on lignocellulose valorisation to disseminate the activities and for network building. In particular, the contact and the collaboration between the Biofuels Unit of CIEMAT and the Biobased Industry Center of Lund University was established in 2005 during a European project in which both participated. Since that, a close contact is kept thanks to the common topics of interest of both groups.
Information in Spanish: http://www.ciemat.es/cargarAplicacionNoticias.do?idArea=-1&identificador=1451