Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Pisa, Via G. Moruzzi 13, 56124 Pisa, Italy.
Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, University of Pisa, Largo Lucio Lazzarino 2, 56122 Pisa, Italy.
Bioresour Technol. 2017 Nov;244(Pt 1):880-888. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2017.08.012. Epub 2017 Aug 7.
For the first time, the exploitation of hazelnut shells for the combined production of levulinic acid (LA) and hydrochar was investigated. The optimization of the catalytic hydrothermal treatment was performed both in autoclave and microwave reactor, approaching a maximum LA yield of ∼9-12wt%. Hydrochars recovered with high yield (∼43-47wt%) were characterized by different techniques, including elemental and proximate analysis, heating value, FT-IR, XPS, XRD, SEM-EDX, and SAA. Their "lignite-like" energetic properties make them suitable for the energy recovery within the same biorefinery plant for LA production, thus partially offsetting the cost of the entire process. Alternatively, since the synthesized hydrochars maintain high levels of oxygenated groups, they could be smartly exploited as natural sorbents for environmental applications. The proposed integrated approach makes possible to fully exploit this waste, smartly closing its biorefinery cycle in a sustainable development perspective.
首次研究了榛子壳的综合利用，用于生产乙酰丙酸（LA）和水炭。在高压釜和微波反应器中对催化水热处理进行了优化，接近最大 LA 产率约为 9-12wt%。用不同的技术回收了高收率（约 43-47wt%）的水炭，包括元素和近似分析、热值、FT-IR、XPS、XRD、SEM-EDX 和 SAA。它们的“褐煤样”能量特性使它们适合在 LA 生产的同一生物炼制厂中进行能量回收，从而部分抵消整个过程的成本。或者，由于合成的水炭保持高水平的含氧基团，它们可以作为环境应用的天然吸附剂进行智能利用。所提出的综合方法可以充分利用这种废物，从可持续发展的角度来看，智能地关闭其生物炼制厂的循环。
