Chemical and morphological characterization and pulping of Casuarina equisetifolia

Bangladesh is very much successful in coastal afforestation programmes, which protects from frequent cyclones. Casuarina equisetifolia has showed a climate resilient and promising species. No study has been done on industrial application of C. equisetifolia in Bangladesh. In this study, C. equisetifolia was characterized in terms of chemical, morphological and anatomical properties. It is characterized with higher α-cellulose, similar hemicelluloses and lignin as compared to other hardwood species grown in Bangladesh. The C. equisetifolia lignin contained mainly of syringyl unit followed by guaiacyl unit. The fiber of C. equisetifolia was shorter in length with very thick cell wall and narrow lumen, consequently the wood density and runkel ratio were very high (2.89). The C. equisetifolia was also fractionated by formic acid (FA) at atmospheric pressure to pulp, dissolved lignin and hemicelluloses. Pulp yield was 50 % with kappa number of 40 at the conditions of 3 h treatment with 90 % FA followed by 2 h peroxyformic acid treatment. But in the kraft process, C. equisetifolia produced pulp yield of 44 % with kappa number 17. Both pulps showed good bleachability. The papermaking properties were in acceptable range. Finally, it can be said that C. equisetifolia is promising species for pulping.

Synthesis of acrylated epoxidized biobased resin from groundnut seed oil

In this study, groundnut seed oil was epoxidized in situ using hydrogen peroxide (30%) and formic and acetic acid. The reaction conditions were monitored at a temperature of 70oC, stirring speed of 750 rpm and time of 6 hours. After epoxidation, a further modification was done using acrylic acid in the presence of hydroquinone at a temperature of 120oC. Comparatively, peroxyformic acid performed more effectively than the peroxyacetic acid during epoxidation with an iodine value (26.4 gl/100g oil) and oxirane content(3.27%). FTIR analysis of the raw, epoxidized, and acrylated groundnut seed oil indicates that they were suitably functionalized.

Characterization of chia plant (Salvia hispanica) for pulping

In this paper, chia plant was characterized in terms of chemical, morphological, and anatomical properties. Chia plant was characterized with low α-cellulose (30.5%); moderate lignin (23.2%) with syringyl to guaiacyl ratio of 1.41; and shorter fiber length (0.67 mm) with thinner cell wall (1.91 μm) and good flexibility coefficient (71.44). Anatomical features showed that chia plant consists of vessels, fibers, parenchyma cells, and collenchyma cells. Chia plant pulping was evaluated in soda-anthraquinone (soda-AQ) and formic acid/peroxyformic acid (FA/PFA) processes. Chia plant was difficult to delignify in the alkaline process. The FA/PFA process produced higher pulp yield at the same kappa number than the soda-AQ process. Unbleached soda-AQ chia pulp exhibited good proper-ties in terms of tensile, bursting, and tearing strengths, even at the unrefined stage, due to high drainability of the pulps. Alkaline peroxide bleached FA/PFA pulp exhibited better papermaking properties and 2% higher brightness than the D0(EP)D1 bleached soda-AQ pulp.

Isolation of cellulose nanocrystals from rice husk using the formic/ peroxyformic acid process

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) is one of the interesting materials attracting many researchers from the decades, especially when they are extracted from natural biomass resources. The aim of this study was to explore the utilization of rice husk residues as source for the production of CNCs. Cellulose was extracted from rice husk based on chemical method, using the formic/ peroxyformic acid process in order to effectively remove lignin and hemicelluloses from raw material. The cellulose was then treated by acid hydrolysis process performing at 45oC for 30 min, using 15 mL of H2SO4 (64% wt) for each gram of cellulose. The material obtained after each stage of the treatments was carefully characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Morphological characterization from TEM revealed the appearance of needle-like shaped CNCs, average diameter and length of 15 nm and 480 nm, respectively. FT-IR results indicated that lignin was completely removed from the samples during chemical treatment. The thermal stability of the materials in successive treatments was also investigated using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). These promising results proved revalue of this by-product for the production of CNCs and its potential use as reinforcement in the preparation of nanocomposites.

Pre-bleaching of kraft acacia pulp

Kraft pulps from acacia hybrid, Acacia mangium of 8 years old and Acacia auriculiformis of 6, 8 and 10 years old were pre-treated with oxygen, peroxyformic acid and acid treatment prior to bleaching. The kappa number reduction was 52–63 % by oxygen delignification, 31–35 % by peroxyformic acid (PFA) pre-treatment and 11–13 % by acid pre-treatment. Oxygen delignified pulp required less chlorine dioxide charge to reach target brightness. At the consumption of 30 kg ClO2/ton of pulp, the pulp brightness reached to 65–71 % for the untreated pulp, 81–85 % for the oxygen delignified pulp, 81–82 % for the PFA treatment and 79–80 % for acid pre-treated pulp. COD load in bleached effluent was much lower in oxygen delignified pulp. Cold alkali extraction of unbleached and oxygen delignified pulps was also carried out with varying alkali charge to remove hexenuronic acid (HexA) from the pulp. Xylan removal from the pulp was insignificant and resulted in no removal of HexA. Acid pretreatment removed 55.7 % to 17.8 % HexA from acacia hybrid, 57.5 % to 16.3 % from A. auriculiformis of 10 years and 58.6 % to 20.1 % from A. auriculiformis of 6 years old, resulting in improved final pulp brightness.

Organic peroxides gas-particle partitioning and rapid heterogeneous decomposition on secondary organic aerosol

Organic peroxides, important species in the atmosphere, will promote secondary organic aerosols (SOA) aging, affect HOx radicals cycling, and cause adverse health effects. However, the formation, gas-particle partitioning, and evolution of organic peroxides are extremely complicated and still unclear. In this study, we investigate in the laboratory the production and gas-particle partitioning of peroxides from the ozonolysis of α-pinene, which is one of the major biogenic volatile organic compounds in the atmosphere and is an important precursor for SOA at a global scale. We have determined the molar yields of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), hydroxymethyl hydroperoxide (HMHP), peroxyformic acid (PFA), peroxyacetic acid (PAA) and total peroxides (TPO, including unknown peroxides) and the fraction of peroxides in SOA. Comparing the gas-phase and particle-phase peroxides, we find that gas-particle partitioning coefficients of PFA and PAA are 104 times higher than theoretical prediction, indicating that organic peroxides play a more important role in the SOA formation than expected previously. Here, we give the partitioning coefficients of TPO as (2–3) × 10-4 m3μg-1. Even so, more than 80 % of the peroxides formed in the reaction remain in the gas phase. Water does not affect the total amount of peroxides in either the gas or particle phase, but can change the distribution of gaseous peroxides. About 18 % gaseous peroxides undergo rapid heterogeneous decomposition on SOA particles in the presence of water vapor, resulting in the additional production of H2O2. This process can partially interpret the unexpected high H2O2 yield under wet conditions. Transformation of organic peroxides to H2O2 also saves OH in the atmosphere, helping to improve the understanding of OH cycling.

Understanding atmospheric peroxyformic acid chemistry: observation, modeling and implication

The existence and importance of peroxyformic acid (PFA) in the atmosphere has been under controversy. We present here, for the first time, the observation data for PFA from four field measurements carried out in China. These data provided powerful evidence that PFA can stay in the atmosphere, typically in dozens of pptv level. The relationship between PFA and other detected peroxides was examined. The results showed that PFA had a strong positive correlation with its homolog, peroxyacetic acid, due to their similar sources and sinks. Through an evaluation of PFA production and removal rates, we proposed that the reactions between peroxyformyl radical (HC(O)O2) and formaldehyde or the hydroperoxyl radical (HO2) were likely to be the major source and degradation into formic acid (FA) was likely to be the major sink for PFA. Based on a box model evaluation, we proposed that the HC(O)O2 and PFA chemistry was a major source for FA under low NOx conditions. Furthermore, it is found that the impact of the HC(O)O2 and PFA chemistry on radical cycling was dependent on the yield of HC(O)O2 radical from HC(O) + O2 reaction. When this yield exceeded 50%, the HC(O)O2 and PFA chemistry should not be neglected for calculating the radical budget. To make clear the exact importance of HC(O)O2 and PFA chemistry in the atmosphere, further kinetic, field and modeling studies are required.