Hydrolysis of Selected Tropical Plant Wastes Catalyzed by a Magnetic Carbonaceous Acid with Microwave

• Published in: Scientific reports 2015-12, Vol.5 (1), p.17538-17538, Article 17538
• Main Authors: Su, Tong-Chao, Fang, Zhen, Zhang, Fan, Luo, Jia, Li, Xing-Kang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 639/166/898; 639/166/986; Bagasse; Biomass; Cellulose; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hydrolysis; Magnetism; multidisciplinary; Nanoparticles; Pyrolysis; Science; Sugar; Sulfonation; Tropical plants
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/srep17538

In this study, magnetic carbonaceous acids were synthesized by pyrolysis of the homogeneous mixtures of glucose and magnetic Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles and subsequent sulfonation. The synthesis conditions were optimized to obtain a catalyst with both high acid density (0.75 mmol g −1 ) and strong magnetism [magnetic saturation, Ms = 19.5 Am 2 kg −1 ]. The screened catalyst (C-SO 3 H/Fe 3 O 4 ) was used to hydrolyze ball-milled cellulose in a microwave reactor with total reducing sugar (TRS) yield of 25.3% under the best conditions at 190 °C for 3.5 h. It was cycled for at least seven times with high catalyst recovery rate (92.8%), acid density (0.63 mmol g −1 ) and magnetism (Ms = 12.9 Am 2 kg −1 ), as well as high TRS yield (20.1%) from the hydrolysis of ball-milled cellulose. The catalyst was further successfully tested for the hydrolysis of tropical biomass with high TRS and glucose yields of 79.8% and 58.3% for bagasse, 47.2% and 35.6% for Jatropha hulls, as well as 54.4% and 35.8% for Plukenetia hulls.