Topic of investigations in the project (title)

Investigations on the pre-treatment of lignocellulosic substrates from annual plants

Institute:

LNEG- Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia

Address:

Estrada do Paço do Lumiar 22, 1649-038 Lisboa, Portugal.

Project leader:

Florbela Carvalheiro

Responsible co-worker:

Rafal Lukasik, Luís C. Duarte

Objectives:

LNEG will study the application of hydrothermal treatments (autohydrolysis) in order to separate hemicelluloses and optimize the production of soluble xylo-oligosaccharides (XOS) from wheat straw. The chemical characterization of the glucan and lignin enriched residues will be assessed and will be compared with the composition of solids obtained by other processes, e.g., NP processing.
LNEG will also develop an innovative pre-treatment approach for wheat straw through the application of ionic liquids (ILs). Based on previous knowledge concerning the type of ILs and relevant experimental conditions, a fractionation strategy in order to recover cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin rich-fractions will be developed and applied.