Platform Chemicals and Novel Materials from Biomass

Dear Colleagues,

The growing need for material and energy resources is coupled with increasingly complex access to traditional fossil resources—oil, gas and coal—for geopolitical, economic and technological reasons. In this scenario, the possibility arises of developing new processes and products based on existing knowledge to transform the aforementioned fossil resources, applying such knowledge to a type of material and energy resource that is renewable by its very nature: biomass. Emerging processes, resources, reaction intermediates and final products based on biomass are building the so-called biorefineries. The ultimate aim of this development is to first supplement and then replace fuels, solvents, chemicals and materials now produced from fossil resources.

The current situation of global economic growth, with a significant number of extraordinarily populated emerging countries, coupled with environmental degradation and the finite nature of mineral and fossil resources, may find a solution, at least partially, in the use of resources created by living beings through photosynthesis and a wide range of metabolic transformations: biomass. At the same time, the knowledge acquired during the 20th century in the transformation of fossil and biomass resources (food, paper and cellulose) is the cognitive basis for the creation of the biorefinery concept and the underlying technologies. This Special Issue focuses on the final, transformative part of these biomass resources into chemicals and materials that are to supplement, first and foremost, and ultimately replace those coming from fossil resources. This transformation is based on heat-driven and catalytic/biocatalytic processes.

Prof. Dr. Miguel Ladero Galán
Dr. Juan M. Bolivar
Guest Editors

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Title: Enzymatic saccharification of Orange Peel Wastes: scale-up and kinetic modeling in batch and fed-batch operations
Authors: Miguel Ladero
Affiliation: Complutense University
Abstract: In the juice industry, the waste generated during the elaboration process constitutes an envi-ronmental problem. The most important group of waste is the citrus fruits, especially oranges, as 35-55% of processed fruit is derivative. Therefore, one of the most important challenges for the industry is the benefit of waste generated, obtaining products with commercial value. One of the classical alternatives is to obtain sugars that can be further transformed into bioethanol. In the present work, the process of enzymatic hydrolysis of the orange waste has been scaled up in batch and fed-batch operations to increase the final concentration of sugars obtained, performing a detailed kinetic modeling during the scale-up. This work focuses on the study of different physical variables that affect the reactive process, to determine its optimal value. Finally, the composition of the orange waste used was analyzed by X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy and meas-urement by focused beam reflection along the reactive process, to better understand the sacchar-ification process.