Bioprocess turns pine needles into new products
3 Jan 2019 by Evoluted New Media
A new bioprocess could turn pine needles on abandoned Christmas trees into environmentally friendly chemical products.
According to the University of Sheffield, biorefineries would use the sustainable process to break down the pine needles into a bio-liquid, which could have uses in paints and food sweeteners.
Cynthia Kartney from the university’s Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering said: “My research has been focused on the breakdown of this complex structure into simple, high-valued industrial chemical feedstocks such as sugars and phenolics, which are used in products like household cleaners and mouthwash.”
Pine needles take a long time to decompose and when they do so they emit large quantities of greenhouse gases. The complexity of lignocellulose, a major component present in pine needles, makes them useless to most industrial processes.
The university’s process involves the addition of heat and solvents such as glycerol, which is cheap and environmentally friendly. This breaks the chemical structure of pine needles down into a liquid product (bio-oil) and a solid by-product (bio-char).
Bio-oil typically contains phenol, commonly used in paint strippers; glucose, used in the production of sweeteners for food; and acetic acid, found in paint, adhesives and vinegar.
It could also potentially replace less sustainable chemicals currently used in industry, while the solid by-product, bio-char, has uses in other industrial chemical processes.
Kartney added: “In the future, the tree that decorated your house over the festive period could be turned into paint to decorate your house once again.”
Dr James McGregor, senior lecturer in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, said: “The use of biomass – materials derived from plants – to produce fuels and chemicals currently manufactured from fossil resources will play a key role in the future global economy."
