Investigation of cornstalk cellulose liquefaction in supercritical acetone by FT-TR and GC-MS methods

ABSTRACT

Cornstalk cellulose was liquefied in supercritical acetone at various temperature by a high-pressure autoclave, where the maximum yield of bio-oil was 43.79% and the highest conversion rate of cellulose was 72.13%. FT-TR spectrums showed that the C–O–C and C–C bonds in cellulose were cleaved under the attack of supercritical acetone, then active fragments were produced and transformed into liquefaction products. GC-MS results showed that the dominant components in bio-oil were ketones, esters, alkanes, etc. As the acetone dosage increased, ketones and glucosides increased while esters and alkanes decreased. A higher temperature was suitable for ketones and esters formation, which had an inhibition on alkanes formation. Finally, the formation of pathways and networks of dominant chemicals during cellulose liquefaction in supercritical acetone were developed. This investigation contributes to the knowledge of cellulose liquefaction in supercritical solvents for bio-oil and platform chemicals, which can provide an alternative method for biomass resources utility.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Cornstalk cellulose
• liquefaction
• supercritical acetone
• bio-oil
• platform chemicals

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Wei Li is a graduate student at College of Food, South China Agricultural University, China. His research interests focus on biomass chemistry.

Xin-an Xie is currently a professor at College of Food, South China Agricultural University, China. His research interests focus on biomass conversion and simulation optimization research.

Jiao Sun is a graduate student at College of Food, South China Agricultural University, China. Her research interests focus on biomass utilization.

Di Fan is a graduate student at College of Food, South China Agricultural University, China. Her research interests focus on biomass conversion.

Xing Wei is a graduate student at College of Food, South China Agricultural University, China. His research interests focus on biomass chemistry.

Additional information

Funding

We sincerely acknowledge the financial support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21576107, 21176097) and the Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Program Foundation of China (2014A010106024).