Glycerol is a plasticizer widely used due to its good plasticization efficiency, great availability, biocompatibility and low exudation. It is a renewable raw material that, when introduced in biodegradable films, promotes significant changes in its properties and, thus, guarantees a wide spectrum of application. In this work, corn straw was used to produce cellulose triacetate films from mixtures with glycerol (10%, 20% and 30%). The films were characterized by X-Ray Diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Thermogravimetric Analysis, Water Vapor Transport Rate and Water Vapor Permeation. The cellulose triacetate films produced with 20% glycerol have high barrier properties, when compared to films with concentrations 0, 10 and 30%.

Abstract In the present study, catalytic activity of dense, porous, electrospun membranes of polysulfone (PSF) and polysulfone with sulfonated polystyrene (PSF_PSS) have been evaluated in reactions of esterification of oleic acid with methanol, in times that varied from 10 to 480 minutes. Conversion to biodiesel has been confirmed by FTIR and quantified through gas chromatography. The results showed the catalysts used were effective in the esterification reaction studied and the PSF_PSS electrospun membrane has presented the best conversion to methyl oleate, reaching 70.5% in a 10-minute reaction and 95.8% in a 240-minute reaction, when methanol:oleic acid molar ratio of 10:1, 5% of catalyst and temperature of 100 °C were used. Considering the performance of solid catalysts described in literature, mainly related to reaction times and conversion of the process, this study reveals a promising feasibility of using electrospun membranes of PSF_PSS for developing a heterogeneous acid catalyst aimed to biodiesel synthesis.

Sugarcane bagasse fibers chemically modified on its surface were used to adsorb contaminants from biodiesel. Two biodiesel samples were used as adsorbates: crude and washed biodiesel. The contaminants were mainly glycerol and water, but also ions, and methanol. The biodiesel is usually washed, in order to remove most of the contaminants, but the procedure introduces large amounts of water, which are further difficult to remove, because the biodiesel acting as an acceptor of hydrogen bond. The adsorbent used in this work was proved to be very efficient to remove the contaminants and also to remove water from the washing the crude biodiesel. The contaminants adsorbed from biodiesel were identified by thermal analyses (DSC and DTA) of the fibers (adsorbent) and of the biodiesel (adsorbate) by comparing the results with the pure biodiesel. The proportion of free glycerol showed high adsorption efficiency for the crude biodiesel. A total amount of 1.34 g of fibers was estimated as being needed for its complete removal. The mass of bagasse fibers added (up to 1g) in a fixed volume of biodiesel was a relevant condition, as the saturation in fibers started at around 0.70 g cleaning up to about 98% removal of the impurities.

The synthesis of cationic derivatives of hemicelluloses from corn husk was carried out by the reaction of hemicelluloses with 2,3-epoxypropyltrimethylammonium chloride (ETA) in aqueous sodium hydroxide. The characterization of the cationic derivatives was carried out by elemental analysis, Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TG/DTA). An important characteristic was the solubility in water of the produced derivatives. This characteristic was used to apply derivatives as auxiliary coagulation with tannin in wastewater treatment for industrial laundries. The results showed that the association of tannin and cationic hemicelluloses (3,200 mg L-1) is important because the turbidity removal was greater than 95% in all range of pH, including alkaline regions. Then it is unnecessary to adjust the pH before the coagulation step.

The aim of this study was to produce membranes using the adapted cuprammonium method. The cellulose utilized was obtained from recycled agroindustrial residues: sugarcane bagasse, corn stover and soybean hulls. The levels of Cu (II) ions in regenerated cellulose membranes produced with cellulose from bagasse, corn stover and soybean hulls were 0.0236 wt%, 0.0255 wt% and 0.0268 wt%, respectively. These levels were approximately 15 times lower than those observed in previous studies (0.3634 wt%). Cellular viability data show that membranes produced from bagasse cellulose do not present toxicity to the cellular cultures studied. These results demonstrate an evolution in production of regenerated cellulose membranes from agroindustrial residues mainly due to a decrease in the Cu (II) ions level, showing the possibility of application of these systems with improved membranes processing.

In this work, the effects of incorporating cellulose nanocrystals from soy hulls (WSH30) on the mechanical, thermal, and barrier properties of methylcellulose (MC) nanocomposites were evaluated. MC/WSH30 nanocomposite films with different filler levels (2, 4, 6, 8, and 10%) were prepared by casting. Compared to neat MC film, improvements in the mechanical and barrier properties were observed, while thermal stability was retained. The improved mechanical properties of nanocomposites prepared may be attributed to mechanical percolation of WSH30, formation of a continuous network of WSH30 linked by hydrogen interactions and a close association between filler and matrix.

Cellulose acetates (CA) with different degrees of acetylation were synthesized from cellulose extracted from corn stover. Membranes were prepared for the ultrafiltration process with pure polymers and blend form of CA utilizing a dioxane/acetone system. The membranes were characterized according to their transport properties. The blend form materials presented the best results for application in ultrafiltration experiments. M-TAC/DAC (corn stover triacetate and diacetate) and M-TAC/DAC-Rho (corn stover triacetate and Rhodia diacetate) presented rejection to egg albumin protein of 87.39% and 80.50%, respectively. Thus, MWCO of 45 kDa was determined for these materials.

Hemicelluloses were extracted from corn husk and converted into cationic hemicelluloses using 2,3-epoxypropyltrimethylammonium chloride. The degree of substitution was determined as 0.43 from results of elemental analysis. The cationic derivative was also characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Carbon-13 magnetic nuclear ressonance. The produced polymer was employed as coagulant aid in a sewage treatment station (STS) of the municipal department of water and sewer (Departamento Municipal de Água e Esgoto - DMAE) in Uberlândia-Minas Gerais, Brazil, using Jar test experiments. Its performance was compared to ACRIPOL C10, a commercial cationic polyacrylamide regularly used as a coagulant at the STS. The best result of the jar-test essays was obtained when using cationic hemicelluloses (10 mg L- 1) as coagulant aid and ferric chloride as coagulante (200 mg L- 1). The resultsof color and turbidity reduction, 37 and 39%, respectively, were better than when using only ferric chloride. These results were also higher than those of commercial polyacrylamide, on the order of 32.4 and 38.7%, respectively. The results showed that the cationic hemicelluloses presented similar or even superior performance when compared to ACRIPOL C10, demonstrating that the polyelectrolytes produced from recycled corn husks can replace commercial polymers in sewage treatment stations.

Cellulose acetate produced from mango seed fibers cellulose was used as a matrix for preparation of microparticles empty and load with acetaminophen (Paracetamol) in order to evaluate the incorporation of an active agent during the formation of microparticles. The microparticles are characterized by Fourier Transformed Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The incorporation of paracetamol can be confirmed by the change in value of glass transition temperature (Tg). The formation of microparticles spherical was observed by SEM and showed an average diameter of 1.010 and 0.950 mm for empty and load microparticles respectively.