Prepare Microcrystalline Cellulose From Corncob

Microcrystalline cellulose is an organic compound with the formula (C6H10O5)n, a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of β(1→4) linked D-glucose units. Microcrystalline cellulose is an important structural component of the primary cell wall of green plants; cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer on Earth. Microcrystalline cellulose is used as a texturizer, an anti-caking agent, a fat substitute, an emulsifier, an extender, and a bulking agent in food production. The traditional technology use lots of strong acid, strong alkali, and other chemical reagents, and waste huge amounts of energy. Many pollutants directly emit from the processes.In this paper, the new processes from corncob to microcrystalline cellulose were investigated. In this process, hydroxyl radical is used as strong oxidant. The aim of the processes is reducing our environmental foot print and comprehensive utilization of corncob (trash to treasure). The residue of corncob (xylose has been extracted by hydrolysis reaction with dilute acid) used as raw material. At the same time, the processes of organic composite fertilizer from black liquor were investigated.At the first, the principal component analysis of corncob and residue were tested. And on this basis, the processes were investigated. This article focuses on desanding, hydroxyl radical oxidation, whitening and so on. The influence rule of corncob, oxidizing agent, decolorizer, reaction time, reaction temperature was studied.In this paper, the processes of microcrystalline cellulose were verified by the pilot-scale production that set the base for industrialization and market process. The product ingredient, technology conditions and the introducing method were determined; the quality indexes of product quality standard were detected.Finally, the summarization and prospects of the research are described.