Exploration of Cucumber Waste as a Potential Biorefinery Feedstock

TY - JOUR

T1 - Exploration of Cucumber Waste as a Potential Biorefinery Feedstock

AU - Gao, Yang

AU - Briers, Hannah K.

AU - Matharu, Avtar S.

AU - Fan, Jiajun

N1 - Funding Information: This work is financially supported by the EPSRC (grant number EP/R51181X/1). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors.

PY - 2022/12/14

Y1 - 2022/12/14

N2 - The exploration of cucumber waste as a potential biorefinery feedstock is reported. Initially, extractives (essential oils) were isolated from cucumber waste via vacuum microwave hydro-distillation (VMHD). The yield and quality of the extractive were compared with respect to traditional hydro-distillation (HD). The essential oils were obtained over a range of microwave power (500, 750, 1000 W) and vacuum pressures (100, 200, 300 mbar). The highest quality (0.49 wt %) was obtained at a microwave irradiation power of 500 W and a vacuum of 300 mbar. VMHD is much quicker and more energy-efficient than HD. Within the context of a zero-waste biorefinery, the extractive-free residues were the solid residues from two different extraction methods were compared and characterized by ATR-IR, 13C solid-state NMR spectroscopy, SEM, TGA, and CHN elemental analysis. The resultant residues are cellulosic-rich, and no significant changes were observed with VMHD and HD treatment. The results indicated that the utilization of these residues can provide an efficient, inexpensive, and environment-friendly platform for the production of cellulosic materials.

AB - The exploration of cucumber waste as a potential biorefinery feedstock is reported. Initially, extractives (essential oils) were isolated from cucumber waste via vacuum microwave hydro-distillation (VMHD). The yield and quality of the extractive were compared with respect to traditional hydro-distillation (HD). The essential oils were obtained over a range of microwave power (500, 750, 1000 W) and vacuum pressures (100, 200, 300 mbar). The highest quality (0.49 wt %) was obtained at a microwave irradiation power of 500 W and a vacuum of 300 mbar. VMHD is much quicker and more energy-efficient than HD. Within the context of a zero-waste biorefinery, the extractive-free residues were the solid residues from two different extraction methods were compared and characterized by ATR-IR, 13C solid-state NMR spectroscopy, SEM, TGA, and CHN elemental analysis. The resultant residues are cellulosic-rich, and no significant changes were observed with VMHD and HD treatment. The results indicated that the utilization of these residues can provide an efficient, inexpensive, and environment-friendly platform for the production of cellulosic materials.

KW - biorefinery

KW - cellulosic materials

KW - cucumber

KW - essential oils

KW - hydro-distillation

KW - vacuum microwave hydro-distillation

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85144873156&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/pr10122694

DO - 10.3390/pr10122694

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85144873156

SN - 2227-9717

VL - 10

JO - Processes

JF - Processes

IS - 12

M1 - 2694

ER -