ABSTRACT
As a valuable renewable resource composed of monomeric C5 and C6 sugars, hemicelluloses are promised to a bright industrial future due to the value chains that can be initiated from these sugars.
The valorization of seed storage hemicelluloses, of hemicelluloses extracted from papermaking processes and hemicelluloses extracted from second-generation biorefineries are of industrial interest.
Typical sources of seed storage hemicelluloses are endosperms, and cotyledons of several plant species. Their main applications include their use as food products, as techno-functional agents for food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products, as inducer of plant defense response, as films and coatings for foodstuffs as well as biomedical purposes, as platform molecules for fuels and chemicals.
In the papermaking process, the concept of value prior to pulping has been proposed, where the hemicelluloses are either partially or completely extracted for the production of biofuels, chemicals and biomaterials such as bioethanol, biohydrogen, furfural, xylitol, bifunctional organic molecules, barrier films, and hydrogels.
Hemicelluloses extracted from second-generation biorefineries have a great potential to generate a wide variety of biobased building blocks including organic acids, alcohols, furans, aldehydes and lactams converted into added value products like for examples polyethylene, acrylate, superabsorbent polymers, epichlorhydrin, aspartame, tetrahydrofuran, surfactants, PVC plasticizers, …
