Sudip Rakshit
Lakehead University, Canada
Title: Conversion of wood hemicellulose into fully biobased products
Biography
Biography: Sudip Rakshit
Abstract
Biorefining is an important means to mitigate climate change. Lignocellulosic resources like woody biomass are excellent starting materials for the production of biofuels, biochemicals and biomaterials. The cellulose component of such biomass has been the focus of considerable research. However, the recalcitrant nature of this natural polymer makes it difficult to use economically. The focus of this presentation will be on the utilization of hemicellulose for the production of value added products. We have successfully demonstrated the production of several valuable products such as xylitol, succinic acid and levulinic acid from hemicellulose (Dalli SS et al. 2015,). An efficient detoxification process developed in our lab makes the components of hemicellulose more amenable to fermentation and resulted in the highest yield of xylitol (Dalli S.S. et al. 2017a). Another innovative approach has been designed to produce bio-succinic acid from hemicellulose in a single step using a biphasic reactor (Dalli SS et al. 2017b). Polyurethanes (PUs), mainly produced from petroleum sources, exhibits versatile properties suitable for different applications like foams, adhesives, coatings and sealants. We have reported the production of microbial oil from crude biodiesel based glycerol (Uprety et al. 2017a). We are presently working on bioconversion of the microbial oil produced from hemicellulose streams to polyols. We are also developing an alternate route for the production of isocyanate, which is the other important component for the production of polyurethane foams (Uprety et. al. 2017b). The overall aim of this study is to produce fully biobased products which eliminates the use of toxic material like phosgene and reduces the use of fossil based resources which have a much higher carbon foot print.