Isolamento das frações celulósicas e hemicelulósicas do bagaço do sorgo sacarino (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) e síntese de acetato de celulose.

Abstract

Lignocellulosic materials represent an important raw material for biofuels production and other chemical inputs for comodites. These materials when derived in cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin generate raw materials and by-products with higher added value, such as cellulose acetate derived from cellulose and xylose obtained from hemicellulose. In general sugarcane is the source of lignocellulosic material most used to obtain these derivatives and fractions. However, alternative to sugarcane, saccharine sorghum has been highlighted by its lignocellulosic potential and because it presents advantages from the viewpoint of photosynthesis and maturation speed and adaptation in the semi-arid region. Thus, the main objective of the present work was the isolation of cellulose and hemicellulose from saccharin sorghum bagasse and the production of cellulose acetate. Firstly, the lignocellulosic characterization of saccharin sorghum bagasse was carried out to determine the cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin contents, followed by a pretreatment with alkaline hydrogen peroxide, aiming to study the effect of temperature, peroxide concentration of hydrogen and reaction time to solubilize the lignin. The delignification generated a solid residue mostly composed of cellulose and a liquid mostly composed of hemicellulose and lignin. Separation of the solid residue from the liquid was carried out by filtration, the filtrate submitted to the addition of ethyl alcohol and precipitated into hemicellulose. The bagasse in natura and pre-treated, cellulose and hemicellulose extract and cellulose acetate were characterized by infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermogravimetric analysis (TG / DTG / DSC). By means of statistical analysis of the experimental data, it was observed that the pretreatment conditions that generated the highest solubilization of lignin (61.98%) and higher yield in the cellulose extraction (39.5%) were at the temperature of 60 ° C, peroxide concentration of 6% and reaction time of 4 hours, as well as the condition in which the highest yield for hemicellulose (7.04%) was obtained at the same temperature and concentration of hydrogen peroxide, however, the reaction time was 6h. The cellulose obtained in the best pre-treatment condition was submitted to a homogeneous acetylation reaction to synthesize the cellulose acetate compound in which the studied variables of synthesis were temperature and reaction time of acetylation. Cellulose acetate was obtained with a substitution degree of 3.66 at a temperature of 25 °C and reaction time of 24h. The FTIR spectra indicated the efficiency characteristics of identical lignocellulosic materials, which demonstrated the pretreatment efficiency with alkaline hydrogen peroxide. Through the XRD analyzes the presence of characteristic peaks of lignocellulosic materials, the presence of partially crystalline cellulose regions and amorphous to hemicellulose were observed. Regarding the thermo gravimetric analyzes of TG and DTG, it was possible to conclude that the isolated materials, cellulose and hemicellulose, showed similar mass losses and that could also be confirmed through the DSC curves.