Potential of Lignocellulosic Agro-Waste to Produce Value-Added Products †
1
Department of Food Science and Technology, School of Engineering and Engineering Technology, Federal University of Technology, Owerri PMB 1526, Imo State, Nigeria
2
Department of Chemical & Biomedical Engineering, FAMU-FSU, College of Engineering, Tallahassee, FL 32310, USA
3
Institute of Technology, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Kreutzwaldi 56, 51006 Tartu, Estonia
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
Presented at the 14th European Nutrition Conference FENS 2023, Belgrade, Serbia, 14–17 November 2023.
Proceedings 2023, 91(1), 127; https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2023091127
Published: 22 January 2024
(This article belongs to the Proceedings of The 14th European Nutrition Conference FENS 2023)
Abstract
:This work focused on the effect of combustion on the yield, composition, and strength of food-grade bio- alkali from lignocellulosic agro-waste. Seven lignocellulosic types of agro-waste, including plantain stalk, plantain peel (green and ripe), empty palm bunch, palm fiber, coconut fiber, and cocoa pod were sun-dried and combusted using two methods: open-air combustion (OAC) and muffle furnace combustion (MFC). Ash and potash yield from the two methods of combustion were determined using simple proportion calculations. A two-stage hydrothermal extraction process was carried out on the ash using a deionized water ratio of 1:10 for food-grade bio-alkali, and the leachates were evaluated for pH, alkalinity, and metallic ion contents using standard analytical methods. The data obtained were statistically analyzed via a two-way ANOVA. The OAC samples had a higher ash content range (8.24–18.6%) compared to MFC samples (7.37–9.89%). Potash yield (%) is both biomass and combustion-method dependent, with MFC having a higher average yield (3.05%) than OAC (2.35%). The pH of the leachates for all samples ranged from 10.3 to 12.0. All the agro-waste exhibited a similar pattern in the order of magnitude of the metals of which they were composed (K > Mg > Ca > Zn > Na). For the minerals, PO4 was highest (193.1 g/L) in plantain stalk, and KOH and K2CO3 were least (10.0 g/L) in coconut fiber, while the highest alkalinity was obtained in ripe plantain peel (62.1 mg/L). The yield and quality of bio-alkali produced were influenced by the combustion method and source of biomass. The bio-alkali from the different biomass types tested can be used as sources of food-grade emulsifiers due to their high nature of alkalinity. This signifies zero waste and is also a boost to the circular economy. The average alkalinity studied under MFC was 33.6 mg/L and for OAC was 27.3 mg/L, suggesting that MFC is a more promising approach. Worthy of exploration is the significant high content (19.3 mg/L) of chlorine in plantain stalk.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, U.O., D.O. and E.K.; methodology, U.O.; software, U.O. and D.O.; validation, U.O. and E.K.; formal analysis, U.O.; investigation, U.O. and E.K.; resources, TETfund; data curation, D.O. and E.K.; writing—original draft preparation, U.O.; writing—review and editing, D.O. and E.K.; visualization, U.O. and D.O.; supervision, U.O.; project administration, U.O.; funding acquisition, TETfund. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This research was funded by TETfund, and the grant number is OVC/TETFUND/GEN/8.
Institutional Review Board Statement
Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement
Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon request.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare that have no known conflict of interest that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper and they adhered to all the guidelines of the journal. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.
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© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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MDPI and ACS Style
Onyeka, U.; Kalu, E.; Okafor, D. Potential of Lignocellulosic Agro-Waste to Produce Value-Added Products. Proceedings 2023, 91, 127. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2023091127
AMA Style
Onyeka U, Kalu E, Okafor D. Potential of Lignocellulosic Agro-Waste to Produce Value-Added Products. Proceedings. 2023; 91(1):127. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2023091127
Chicago/Turabian StyleOnyeka, Uloma, Egwu Kalu, and Damaris Okafor. 2023. "Potential of Lignocellulosic Agro-Waste to Produce Value-Added Products" Proceedings 91, no. 1: 127. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2023091127
