2023

Widsten, Petri; Murton, Karl; Bowers, Tracey; Bridson, Jamie; Thumm, Armin; Hill, Stefan; Tutt, Keryn; West, Mark; Weinberg, Garth; Durbin, Gavin; Collet, Christophe

Bio-derived materials are becoming increasingly sought-after as a sustainable alternative to petrochemical-derived polymers. In the present pilot-scale study, a hemicellulose-rich compression screw pressate, obtained from the pre-heating stage of thermo-mechanical pulping (TMP) of radiata pine, was purified by treatment with adsorbent resin (XAD7), then ultrafiltered and diafiltered at 10 kDa to isolate the high-molecular weight (MW) hemicellulose fraction (yield 18.4% on pressate solids), and, finally, reacted with butyl glycidyl ether to plasticise the hemicelluloses. The resulting light brown hemicellulose ethers (yield 102% on the isolated hemicelluloses) contained ca. 0.5 butoxy-hydroxypropyl side chains per pyranose unit and had weight- and number-average MWs of 13,000 Da and 7200 Da, respectively. The hemicellulose ethers may serve as raw material for bio-based products such as barrier films.