Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
components are not used, resulting in the waste of resources. The paper industry
mainly uses a strong acid or alkali to dissolve lignin at high temperatures, which
will consume much energy and many chemical raw materials, resulting in the waste
of resources and environmental pollution.
Similarly, in the fields of biomass fuels such as ethanol, to obtain fermentable
sugar the primary refining of biomass materials includes physical, chemical, and
biological methods. However, the end result of these methods is still aimed at
the enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation of cellulose; the high-value use of
hemicellulose and lignin needs a few considerations. Therefore, these pretreatment
technologies are primary refining of biomass materials; they can only achieve the
utilization of one or two major components in biomass, and the other components
are damaged or wasted.
Based on these problems, to achieve total utilization of biomass a new set
of comprehensive utilization technologies should be established. Components
fractionation- oriented conversion technology is the primary refining technology
to achieve the comprehensive utilization of multiple components of biomass.
Components fractionation-oriented conversion technology is a further improvement
of primary refining of biomass. It is not only a pretreatment method but also an
allocation process of macromolecular components in biomass feedstock, which can
achieve the transformation of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin separately. It is
the most important idea regarding high-value utilization of biomass at present.
4.5.1.3
Fractionation and Partially Functional Conversion
Existing process routes of component separation-orientation conversion usually
consume energy to destroy the structure of the biomass, then to convert it. This
method does not take the functional requirements of the product into account;
total demolition not only increases energy consumption but also lowers the atom
economy for some products. Thus, it is still difficult for the idea of biomass com-
ponent separation-directional conversion to break through the economic problems
of biomass as industrial raw materials to achieve large-scale clean and efficient
industrialization.
Because of the findings of the 973 Project of China, to upgrade the pretreatment-
component separation of lignocellulose to the selectively structural fractionation
process based on functional requirements of products and to make the biomass
materials become common industrial materials for biomass-based energy, materials,
and chemical products, Chen et al. proposed the use of the structural characteristics
of materials and the requirements of the target products.
Product engineering aimed at product demands develops products to meet end-
user performance. At present, product engineering has become an important area of
research. Biomass product engineering is based on renewable biomass resources as
raw materials and oriented to the needs of people for production and living for the
