Recovery of oligosaccharides from pre-hydrolysis liquors of poplar by microfiltration/ultrafiltration membranes and anion exchange resin

Scientific achievement

The proposed process, consisting of MM/UM/anion exchange resin, was applied to recover the OS from the PHL of poplar, which removed 93.1% of the lignin by a good membrane permeability. The filtrate was then treated with anion exchange resins, resulting in a 41.7% recovery rate of OS with 96.4% purity. The two-stage process of using MF/UF had less membrane fouling and longer service life comparing to the single UF process. And the ion-exchange resins had high efficiency in separation and purification and could be regenerated by using of 4% NaOH. So it is a potential and promising technology for commercialization using advanced technology to produce high value-added OS.

Research details

  In this study, a combined process containing MM/UM and anion exchange resin was proposed to extract OS from the PHL. At the first stage, NaOH was added into the PHL prior to filtrating with MM to remove the high-molecular-weight lignin, thus significantly improving the membrane filterability. At the second stage, the UM was focused on the removal of remained lignin fractions, which had a similar molecular weight to the OS and were difficult to remove. The purity of the crude OS was further increased by anion exchange resin.

Scientific achievement

  The proposed process, consisting of MM/UM/anion exchange resin, was applied to recover the OS from the PHL of poplar, which removed 93.1% of the lignin by a good membrane permeability. The filtrate was then treated with anion exchange resins, resulting in a 41.7% recovery rate of OS with 96.4% purity. The two-stage process of using MF/UF had less membrane fouling and longer service life comparing to the single UF process. And the ion-exchange resins had high efficiency in separation and purification and could be regenerated by using of 4% NaOH. So it is a potential and promising technology for commercialization using advanced technology to produce high value-added OS.

Research details

  In this study, a combined process containing MM/UM and anion exchange resin was proposed to extract OS from the PHL. At the first stage, NaOH was added into the PHL prior to filtrating with MM to remove the high-molecular-weight lignin, thus significantly improving the membrane filterability. At the second stage, the UM was focused on the removal of remained lignin fractions, which had a similar molecular weight to the OS and were difficult to remove. The purity of the crude OS was further increased by anion exchange resin.

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