Brief introduction Knowledge learned in class Ongoing experiment Visit to Peking University
World Energy Demand of Present Condition The lack of energy in China ： In 2001 ， the importation of petroleum is 60 million tons. In 2020 ， it will reach 1/2 of total burn-off. In a way, the importation of petroleum can’t ensure the security. Fossil energies: e.g. petroleum, coal, natural gas The footstone of modern energy and chemical industry Fossil energies are running out Carbon Emission is causing global warming Find new fungible energy !
A Big Amount of Reserve Reduce the emission of NO x ， SO x or other poisonous gas Good compatibility The only renewable energy that can be stored and transported Characteristics of biochemical energy
Grow easily. Rich in decomposable cellulose and hemicelluloses, which are formed by millions of glucose and can be transformed into fuel in chemical ways. We decide to use reed which is very similar to miscanthus in our first step.
The procedure of our project Chinese miscanthus Separate miscanthus to get cellulose Catalyses cellulose to get alcohols compound (haven’t started yet) Period 1 Period 2 Characterization of production, analysis of results and improvement of experiment Different choices of separation methods Separation operation and characterization of production According to the result analysis to improve experiment methods
hydrolyze Miscanthus by inorganic acid to get glucose the acidity and high temperature required will easily destroy the glucose it is crucial to find a way to let the glucose escape from the reaction system as soon as possible. use solid acid to hydrolyze the miscanthus. will not do harm to the environment productive rate of it is relatively low compared to the first one. Possible methods
Present condition and possible method discussions on our plan Required background knowledge
Filtration Distillation Fractional Distillation Chromatography
ultraviolet & visible absorption spectrum ， UV-VIS infrared absorption spectrum ， IR fluorescence spectrometry ， FS
Key words: extraction, alkaline treatment, cellulose, semi-cellulose, lignin,
1. Pretreatment Cut raw material (miscanthus) and grind it with ball mill. 2. Water Extraction Process sample has been fully blended with distilled water of 90 ℃.Then filter the liquid with a filter pump.
3. 1,4-butanediol extraction Use 1,4-butanediol to extract lignin and partly hydrolyze semi-cellulose. Soxhlet extractor (on the right) Filter the liquid and get the residue.
4. Mild alkaline/ oxidative treatment Key points: 7.5%NaOH, 2%H2O2, liquid: solid=1:15, temperature 30 ℃, time 5 days.
Something about microwave: After the reading of related scientific papers, we have known that most lignin and many of hemicellulose are easier to be dissolved and hydrolyzed in microwave environment. Obviously, that will help us to get relatively pure cellulose. Therefore, we add microwave process to our plan. Reference: Method of extracting lignin from corn straw by microwave By SUN Bicheng and Sun Weiguo
The processed microwave oven
The solid we get in the former step is microwaved with 1,4-dibutanol,which works as the extractant in this reaction in a processed microwave oven. The reaction lasts for 5 minutes and is repeated 3 times.
The first 5 mins
The following 5 mins
The last 5 mins
Our experiment group and what we get this step.
Here you are going to see a few photos about the processing of our raw material, the spinning machine and the filter vacuum pump.
We are cutting raw materials to the box.
It shows the spinning process.
The filter process as well.
An overall look of the vacuum pump
When: Who: RDFZ Students, Mr.Zhou Where: The College Of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Institute of Analytical Chemistry What we learned: We visited some key labs of Chromatography and Capillary Electrophoresis We learned working functions of some precious equipment The Lab has helped us with the characterization of cellulose. In the future, we will continue to catalyze cellulose into polycols under the experts’ support.