Title : Development of sulphonic acid-functionalized nanocatalyst and its application in the pre-treatment of sugarcane bagasse
Abstract:
Owing to various factors such as ever-increasing global population, urbanization, modernization, industrialization, and globalization have enormously increased the need and demand for energy since the last century and it is predicted that by the year 2040, there will be approximately a 28% rise in the energy demand compared to its present value. Considering such alarming situation, scientific community believed that the production of biofuels such as bioethanol using different biomass is the only solution which can mitigate the continuously increasing energy demand.
However, pretreatment of biomass is one of the most important steps in the production of bioethanol from renewable feedstocks like lignocellulosic biomass. The existing conventional pretreatment approaches have some limitations which mainly include requirement of corrosion-resistant bioreactors, generation of toxic inhibitors, extensive washing of biomass to remove acid used, the cost involved in the process, etc. These concerns create a pressing need to develop the most effective and economically viable alternatives to existing conventional acid (liquid acid) pretreatment methods.
In this context, nanocatalyst in the form sulphonic acid-functionalized magnetic nanoparticles (Fe3O4-MNPs@Si@SO3H) were developed and evaluated for their efficacy in the pretreatment of sugarcane bagasse at different concentrations (i.e. 100 mg/g 200 mg/g 300 mg/g 400 mg/g and 500 mg/g of biomass). It was observed that thus developed nanocatalyst showed concentration-dependent catalytic activity. Moreover, nanocatalysts based pretreatment efficacy was found to be significantly higher when compared with conventional acid pretreatment (i.e. 1% H2SO4). At 500 mg/g of biomass of nanocatalyst it showed maximum release of sugar (xylose) from sugarcane bagasse i.e. 19.24 g/L, which is comparatively higher than the normal acid pretreatment (15.40 g/L). Further, after completion of first cycle of pretreatment, this nanocatalyst was recovered by applying magnetic field and reused for next two subsequent cycles of pretreatments. The recycling and reuse of same nanocatalyst for multiple cycle of pretreatment will help in the reduction of pretreatment cost.
These findings were submitted in the form of patent to the Indian Patent office and it was also published in the Indian Patent Journal (The Patent Office Journal No. 21/2024; Dated 24/05/2024). The nano-based approach proposed in the present study can serve as an effective, easy, rapid, eco-friendly, and economically viable alternative to all the conventional acid-pretreatment approaches that commonly in practice today.
