Characterization of Lignocellulosic Materials

Download or read book Characterization of Lignocellulosic Materials written by Thomas Q. Hu, PhD and published by Wiley-Blackwell. This book was released on 2008 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lignocellulosic materials are a natural, abundant and renewableresource essential to the functioning of industrial societies andcritical to the development of a sustainable global economy. Aswood and paper products, they have played an important role in theevolution of civilization. Improvement of the quality andmanufacturing efficiency of such products has often been hamperedby the lack of understanding of the complex structures and chemicalcompositions of the materials. Due to increasing economic and environmental issues concerning theuse of petrochemicals, lignocellulosic materials will be reliedupon as feedstock for the production of chemicals, fuels andbiocompatible materials. Significant progress has been made to uselignocellulosic materials for the production of fuel ethanol and asa reinforcing component in polymer composites. Effective andeconomical methods for such uses, however, remain underdeveloped,partly due to the difficulties encountered in the characterizationof the structures of native lignocelluloses andlignocelluloses-based materials. Improved methods for thecharacterization of lignocellulosic materials are needed. Characterization of Lignocellulosic Materials covers recentadvances in the characterization of wood, pulp fibres and papers.It also describes the analyses of native and modifiedlignocellulosic fibres and materials using a range of advancedtechniques such as time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry,2D heteronuclear single quantum correlation NMR, and Ramanmicroscopy. The book provides a survey of state-of-the-artcharacterization methods for lignocellulosic materials, for bothacademic and industrial researchers who work in the fields of woodand paper, lignocelluloses-based composites and polymer blends, andbio-based fuels and materials.