To improve the economic viability of the biofuel production from biomass, it is of increasing importance to add value to the lignin produced as a bio-residue. Moreover, to meet the goal to replace 30% of fossil fuel by biofuels by 2030, a huge amount of lignin will soon be produced. The first major step involved to add value to the unconverted lignin is its separation from other biomass constituents to give high purity lignin. In this current work, extraction of lignin from a bio-residue (containing ca. 40% lignin) from second generation bioethanol production is presented. The biomass chosen is Arundo donax L. (or giant reed), which is non-food plant, can tolerate a wide variety of ecological conditions with all types of soils, and has increasingly importance as raw material for industrial purposes as a source of fibers alternative to wood, which availability is decreasing. Slightly different extraction procedures are investigated. Methods used are simple, mild, safe, and avoid destruction of fiber content in the bio- residue, with the final aim to valorize all fractions of the bio-residue, which is an essential step to make biofuel production to be cost effective. Lignins extracted are characterized by morphological analysis, using Scanning Electron Microscopy, SEM, and in terms of thermal behavior -using thermo gravimetric analysis TGA- which is critical for determining suitability of the lignin for polymer composite preparation with improved thermomechanical performance. The method judged as the best of the three leads rapidly to extraction of lignin free from fibers and ash, with thermal behavior suitable for composite preparation

This paper deals with the production of bioethanol from ligno-cellulosic biomass, in particular a softwood biomass from forestry sector is tested: pine wood chip is a residual biomass obtained from coppice maintenance with a very interesting potential. Second generation bioethanol production prototype from ligno-cellulosic biomass consists of the following monitored parts: steam production system, steam explosion reactor for biomass pretreatment (temperature range 180-240°C), enzymatic hydrolyser, fermenter and distiller. The maximum system size is around 2-3kg input biomass each cycle.Selected biomass are tested modifying reaction temperature and retention time of the process and optimizing severity parameter (logR0 between 2.7 and 4.6). Enzymatic hydrolysis is conducted with Ctec2, cellulase complex which consists of a blend of aggressive cellulases (endocellulase and exocellulase), β-glucosidases and hemicellulase, while Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast (“red ethanol”) is used for the fermentation stage. During hydrolysis and fermentation stages intermediate collections at different time are carried out and samples analyzed in order to evaluate the progress of each phase (maximum glucose concentration obtained 18.8mg/ml).The results are presented in terms of raw (cellulose content around 32%) and steam exploded material composition, hydrolyzed sugars and acids content in samples, ethanol content after fermentation at different retention time. Both hydrolysis and fermentation are analyzed comparing real and theoretical efficiency. Finally, mass flows in the different selected conditions are evaluated providing a results in terms of ethanol percentage in function of raw material weight. As a result from 100g of raw material dry basis (32g of cellulose), 10.6g of ethanol were obtained

The PRIN (Research Project with Relevant National Interest) project “Biocheaper—biomasses circular holistic economy approach to energy equipments” started in September 2019 and involves several universities: Palermo as the university coordinator, Perugia, Cassino, Enna, Pavia and Bolzano. The main goal of the project is to increase the energy efficiency and reduce the pollutants emissions in small-scale biomass plant for energy (heat and power) production. The project focuses on residual lignocellulosic feedstocks from the agriculture and forestry sector, from energy crops in marginal lands and residues from rivers maintenance. Starting from the selection and characterization of potential feedstocks, the project aims at developing some prototypes for retrofit applications in existing biomass boilers, like a mini-cyclone for the reduction of particulate emissions and an exhaust air-water condensing system for the recovery of water and the reuse in agriculture. This work presents the first results of the project, in particular regarding the selection and the chemical–physical characterization of different biomass, available in different zones of Italy; in particular the authors investigated cardoon chips, carthamus chips, olive and wine pruning, residues from rivers maintenance. Each biomass sample was characterized in terms of moisture content, ashes content, volatile substances, fixed carbon, low and high heating value, content of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and main metals.