Comparison of bamboo fibers in sulfuric acid, sodium hydroxide and glycerin pretreatments
The chemical compositions and structural characterizations of bamboo samples with three pretreatments using sand bath to heat were comparatively studied with Fourier infrared spectrum (FTIR). The results showed that the holocellulose and cellulose yields increased significantly and the dilute alkali (NaOH) pretreatment performed better lignin removal rate than that of dilute acid (H2SO4) and glycerin pretreatments.Furthermore, when the same solutions were used, the compositional changes were more remarkable at 135 than at 117°C, and the similar degradation of hemicelluloses was observed for the different pretreatments. With sodium hydroxide at 135°C, compared to un-treated bamboo, cellulose increased by 14.21 % and hemicellulose decreased to 13.98 %, counting the removal of lignin to 20.29 %. In which, the bamboo expressed the betterdelignification with sand bath and higher temperature and combinations with other methods of glycerin pretreatment should be evaluated in the future work.