Valorization of Vegetable Waste from Leek, Lettuce, and Artichoke to Produce Highly Concentrated Lignocellulose Micro- and Nanofibril Suspensions

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2022-12-16

Authors

Ricardo J. Santos (Author) FEUP; José L. Sanchez-Salvador (Author) Other; Mariana M. Pereira (Author) FEUP; Margarida S.C.A. Brito (Author) FEUP; Carlos Negro (Author) Other; Maria Conception Monte (Author) Other; Manrique, Y.A. (Author) FEUP; Angeles Blanco (Author) Other

Journal

Title: Nanomaterials

Vol. 32

Final page: 4499

ISSN: 2079-4991

Publisher: MDPI

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 2 Citations

Scopus - 7 Citations

Associated Projects

LA LSRE-LCM - Financiamento Plurianual 2020-2023 para a Unidade LA LSRE-LCM Laboratório de Processos de Separação e Reacção - Laboratório de Catálise e Materiais

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00X-SFY

DOI: 10.3390/nano12244499

Abstract (EN): Vegetable supply in the world is more than double than vegetable intake, which supposes a significant waste of vegetables, in addition to the agricultural residues produced. As sensitive food products, the reasons for this waste vary from the use of only a part of the vegetable due to its different properties to the product appearance and market image. An alternative high-added-value application for these wastes rich in cellulose could be the reduction in size to produce lignocellulose micro- and nanofibrils (LCMNF). In this sense, a direct treatment of greengrocery waste (leek, lettuce, and artichoke) to produce LCMNFs without the extraction of cellulose has been studied, obtaining highly concentrated suspensions, without using chemicals. After drying the wastes, these suspensions were produced by milling and blending at high shear followed by several passes in the high-pressure homogenizer (up to six passes). The presence of more extractives and shorter fiber lengths allowed the obtention of 5-5.5% leek LCMNF suspensions and 3.5-4% lettuce LCMNF suspensions, whereas for artichoke, only suspensions of under 1% were obtained. The main novelty of the work was the obtention of a high concentration of micro- and nanofiber suspension from the total waste without any pretreatment. These high concentrations are not obtained from other raw materials (wood or annual plants) due to the clogging of the homogenizer, requiring the dilution of the sample up to 1% or the use of chemical pretreatments.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 16