Hemicellulose from biodelignified wood : A feedstock for renewable materials and chemicals

The hemicellulose fraction of woody biomass, typically 20-35% of the dry weight of wood, is currently an underutilized renewable resource potentially useful for biobased fuels, chemicals and polymeric materials. In this study, a fungal biodelignification pretreatment stage was successfully employed to enhance the accessibility of fast growing willow wood chips to hemicellulose extraction using water at 140-160°C. Films of hardwood xylan hemicellulose blended with commercially available cellulose esters were prepared from solution in an initial effort to generate new, biodegradable hemicellulose-based materials.