(57i) Hemicellulose Pre-Extraction From Red Maple Wood

Aqueous hemicellulose extracts from wood are considered a viable resource for the production of higher value products such as ethanol. The present process extracts hemicelluloses mainly as xylan-oligomers from wood material. Red maple ( Acer rubrum L.) wood was used for the pre-extraction of hemicellulose using hot water extractions. The extractions were made in both a batch and continuous flow reactor. The hemicelluloses extraction yields and extraction rates of both processes are compared. Temperature and time of exposure for the batch reactor process were varied over the ranges of 140oC-170oC and 45-90 minutes, respectively. The severity factor Ro, a parameter which combines the effect of time of extraction and temperature, is used to measure the intensity of the reaction conditions in the batch process. High Performance Liquid Chromatography and High Performance Anion Exchange Chromatography was used to quantify the amount of oligomeric sugars, acetic acid, formic acid, and furfural in the extracted liquor. A UV-VIS detector was used to determine the amount of lignin removed in the continuous flow reactor set-up. The sugar analysis was used to quantify the removal of xylan, arabinan, galactan, glucan, and mannan. The extraction rate of red maple wood strands, wood chips, and wood meal were determined and compared.