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Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula (C
6H
10O
5)
n, a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of β(1→4) linked D-glucose units. Cellulose is an important structural component of the primary cell wall of green plants, many forms of algae and the oomycetes. Some species of bacteria secrete it to form biofilms. Cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer on Earth. The cellulose content of cotton fibre is 90%, that of wood is 40–50%, and that of dried hemp is approximately 57%.
A hemicellulose is one of a number of heteropolymers, such as arabinoxylans, present along with cellulose in almost all terrestrial plant cell walls. Cellulose is crystalline, strong, and resistant to hydrolysis. Hemicelluloses are branched, shorter in length than cellulose, and also show a propensity to crystallize. They can be hydrolyzed by dilute acid or base as well as a myriad of hemicellulase enzymes.
Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic material – a natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin that resists compression. Wood is sometimes defined as only the secondary xylem in the stems of trees, or more broadly to include the same type of tissue elsewhere, such as in the roots of trees or shrubs. In a living tree, it performs a mechanical-support function, enabling woody plants to grow large or to stand up by themselves. It also conveys water and nutrients among the leaves, other growing tissues, and the roots. Wood may also refer to other plant materials with comparable properties, and to material engineered from wood, woodchips, or fibers.
Anselme Payen was a French chemist known for discovering the enzyme diastase, and the carbohydrate cellulose.
Nitrocellulose is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to a mixture of nitric acid and sulfuric acid. One of its first major uses was as guncotton, a replacement for gunpowder as propellant in firearms. It was also used to replace gunpowder as a low-order explosive in mining and other applications. In the form of collodion it was also a critical component in an early photographic emulsion, the use of which revolutionized photography in the 1860s. In the 20th century it was adapted to automobile lacquer and adhesives.
Lignin is a class of complex organic polymers that form key structural materials in the support tissues of most plants. Lignins are particularly important in the formation of cell walls, especially in wood and bark, because they lend rigidity and do not rot easily. Chemically, lignins are polymers made by cross-linking phenolic precursors.
Pulp is a fibrous lignocellulosic material prepared by chemically, semi-chemically or mechanically producing cellulosic fibers from wood, fiber crops, waste paper, or rags. Mixed with water and other chemicals or plant-based additives, pulp is the major raw material used in papermaking and the industrial production of other paper products.
Christian Friedrich Schönbein HFRSE was a German-Swiss chemist who is best known for inventing the fuel cell (1838) at the same time as William Robert Grove and his discoveries of guncotton and ozone. He also created the concept of geochemistry in 1838.
Lignocellulose refers to plant dry matter (biomass), so called lignocellulosic biomass. It is the most abundantly available raw material on the Earth for the production of biofuels. It is composed of two kinds of carbohydrate polymers, cellulose and hemicellulose, and an aromatic-rich polymer called lignin. Any biomass rich in cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin are commonly referred to as lignocellulosic biomass. Each component has a distinct chemical behavior. Being a composite of three very different components makes the processing of lignocellulose challenging. The evolved resistance to degradation or even separation is referred to as recalcitrance. Overcoming this recalcitrance to produce useful, high value products requires a combination of heat, chemicals, enzymes, and microorganisms. These carbohydrate-containing polymers contain different sugar monomers and they are covalently bound to lignin.
Orlando Aloysius Battista was a Canadian-American chemist and author. He was known in particular for his inventions and patents.
Charles Frédéric Kuhlmann was a French chemist who patented the reaction for converting ammonia to nitric acid, which was later used in the Ostwald process.
Cellulose fibers are fibers made with ethers or esters of cellulose, which can be obtained from the bark, wood or leaves of plants, or from other plant-based material. In addition to cellulose, the fibers may also contain hemicellulose and lignin, with different percentages of these components altering the mechanical properties of the fibers.
Bioproducts or bio-based products are materials, chemicals and energy derived from renewable biological material.
Cellulosic sugars are derived from non-food biomass (e.g. wood, agricultural residues, municipal solid waste). The biomass is primarily composed of carbohydrate polymers cellulose, hemicellulose, and an aromatic polymer (lignin). The hemicellulose is a polymer of mainly five-carbon sugars C5H10O5 (xylose). and the cellulose is a polymer of six-carbon sugar C6H12O6 (glucose). Cellulose fibers are considered to be a plant’s structural building blocks and are tightly bound to lignin, but the biomass can be deconstructed using Acid hydrolysis, enzymatic hydrolysis, organosolv dissolution, autohydrolysis or supercritical hydrolysis. A more recent mechanical method offers hope that at last, a more economic and waste free method has been found although it is still to scale and is not yet commercial.
Paul Dauenhauer, a chemical engineer and MacArthur Fellow, is the Lanny & Charlotte Schmidt Professor at the University of Minnesota (UMN). He is recognized for his research in catalysis science and engineering, especially, his contributions to the understanding of the catalytic breakdown of cellulose to renewable chemicals, the invention of oleo-furan surfactants, and the development of catalytic resonance theory and programmable catalysts.
Franz Ferdinand Schulze was a German professor of chemistry and microbiology who taught at the Royal Prussian State Agricultural Academy in Eldena and later at Rostock. He innovated analytical techniques, particularly making use of specially blown glass tubes. He examined questions such as spontaneous generation in his experiments. He was able to demonstrate that when air was bubbled through sulfuric acid, the resulting air did not produce any growth in carefully sterilized culture media. He translated J. F. W. Johnston's Elements of Agricultural Chemistry and Geology (1841) into German. He coined the name of the wood component lignin in 1857.
Rockcliffe St. J. Manley was a Jamaican-Canadian chemist known for his development of the electrospinning technique of producing polymer nanofibres and for his work on cellulose.
John Ralph is a New Zealand-born, American chemist, wood scientist, and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is an elected fellow (FIAWS) of the International Academy of Wood Science and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (FAAAS).
Josef Franz Gierer is an Austrian-born Swedish chemist and wood scientist who is emeritus professor of organic chemistry, specialising in lignin research, who is a member of the International Academy of Wood Science and honorary recipient of the Anselme Payen Award.
Thomas Rosenau is a German-Austrian chemist and wood scientist specializing in chemistry, who is professor at the Department of Chemistry at BOKU University in Vienna, and also, elected member at the International Academy of Wood Science and honorary recipient of the Anselme Payen Award.
References
- ↑ Payen A., Memoire sur la composition du tissu propre des plantes et du ligneux, Comptes Rendus, 7: 1052-1056, (1838).
- ↑ Schulze F., Beitrage zur Kenntniss des Lignins, Chemisches Zentralblatt, 21:321-325 (1857).
- ↑ Payen A., Composition de la matière ligneuse, Comptes Rendus, 8: 51-53, (1839).
- ↑ "Anselme Payen Award - Cellulose and Renewable Materials Division". cell.sites.acs.org. Archived from the original on 2011-03-01.
- ↑ "SUNY-ESF Web".
- ↑ "Anselme Payen Award". Cellulose and Renewable Materials Division. Archived from the original on 2011-03-01. Retrieved 2020-07-30.