Electro-Assisted Seawater Pretreatment of Corn Stalks for Boosting Levoglucosan and Furfural

Abstract

The seawater electrochemical pretreatment was employed to upgrade the bio-oil of corn stalk in the paper. The seawater and its simulants was used as electrolytes without additional reagents. Moreover, the effect of seawater electrochemical pretreatment under different condition on the products distribution of pyrolysis bio-oil of pretreated corn stalks was investigated. The results shown that pretreatment effectively deconstructed the lignin and made cellulose exposed. Especially, under the optimum conditions (3.5 wt% NaCl, 15V and 4 hours), most lignin was destoyed and most cellulose and hemicellulose were remained in residual solids. Furthermore, during the pyrolysis of residual solids, the levoglucosan and furfural were enriched after seawater electrochemical pretreatment, reaching 23.22% and 14.14%, respectively. Overall, this work presents a novel and green pretreatment process to optimize the components and structure of corn stalks as well as upgrade the bio-oil of corn stalk pyrolysis.

Keywords: Electrochemical pretreatment, Seawater, Bio-oil upgrading, Levoglucosan, Furfural