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Forests
Special Issues
Science and Technology of Lignocellulosic Materials
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Science and Technology of Lignocellulosic Materials

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Wood Science and Forest Products".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2023) | Viewed by 4452

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Ida Poljansek

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Guest Editor
Department of Wood Science and Technology, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Kongresni trg 12, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Interests: chemistry of wood; nanocellulose; extractives; biopolymers; polymer chemistry; composites; spectroscopy; chromatography
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Primož Oven

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Guest Editor
Department of Wood Science and Technology, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Kongresni trg 12, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Interests: structure; biology; chemistry and properties of wood and bark; cellulose nanofibrils; extractives; application; circular economy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Viljem Vek

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Wood Science and Technology, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Kongresni trg 12, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Interests: tree biomass; wood and bark extractives; natural durability of wood; inhibition of fungal growth; bioactive compounds; value-adding compounds; analytical methods; extraction methods; chromatography; bio-based antifungal/antimicrobial/antioxidant agents
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Lignocellulosic biomass is the most abundant and renewable resource on Earth and can be processed in a number of ways by means of mechanical, chemical, or thermal conversion methods. Wood is a hierarchically organized biochemical product of trees, built mainly from three classes of macromolecule: celluloses and hemicelluloses, aromatic polymer lignins, and low-molecular-weight compounds and extractives. New trends in chemical processing include the isolation of individual wood fractions, and the isolation of cellulose, lignin, hemicelluloses, extractives, and fine chemicals, which we have termed valuable biopolymers and molecules, including nanomaterials such as nanocrystalline cellulose, nanofibrillar cellulose, and nanolignin. Due to their exceptional characteristics, they can be used to improve the properties of existing materials or for the formation of new materials from biopolymers or for the preparation of bionanocomposites. This Special Issue will address the chemical variability and versatile possibilities of the advanced use of lignocellulosic biomass. Papers presenting the original use of traditional and new advanced methods for the characterization of raw materials, building blocks, processing intermediates, and final products are also welcome.

Dr. Ida Poljansek
Prof. Dr. Primož Oven 
Dr. Viljem Vek
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • wood bark
  • lignocellulosic biomass
  • chemistry structure
  • cellulose
  • lignin
  • hemicelluloses
  • extractives
  • fine chemicals
  • decomposition
  • nanocrystalline cellulose
  • nanofibrillated cellulose
  • nanolignin
  • advanced methods
  • characterization
  • application
  • bionanocomposites
  • biopolymers
  • biodegradable

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 5507 KiB  
Article
Searching for Optimal Measurement Parameters by Thermogravimetry for Determining the Degree of Modification of Thermally Modified Wood
by Romana Cerc Korošec, Boštjan Žener, Nataša Čelan Korošin, Miha Humar, Davor Kržišnik, Gregor Rep and Urška Lavrenčič Štangar
Forests 2024, 15(1), 8; https://doi.org/10.3390/f15010008 - 19 Dec 2023
Viewed by 701
Abstract
When wood is thermally modified, several chemical reactions take place that change the chemical and physical properties of the wood. These changes correlate with the degree of modification, which is mostly a function of the temperature and duration of modification, and consequently with [...] Read more.
When wood is thermally modified, several chemical reactions take place that change the chemical and physical properties of the wood. These changes correlate with the degree of modification, which is mostly a function of the temperature and duration of modification, and consequently with the mass loss during this process. There is a lack of standardised quality control to verify the degree of heat treatment of wood and thus its quality. One of the possible methods to check the degree of thermal modification of a particular type of wood is thermogravimetry (TG). It is based on the assumption that processes that did not take place during thermal modification continue when the TG experiment is carried out. In this method, calibration curves have to be established based on TG measurements of standard samples that have been thermally modified at different temperatures and whose mass loss during modification is known. The calibration curves show the mass loss during the TG measurement as a function of the mass loss during the previous thermal modification. The course of thermal decomposition during the TG measurements is influenced by many parameters, such as the mass of the sample, the heating rate, the atmosphere in which the measurement takes place, and the shape of the crucible in which the sample is placed. In this paper, the influence of these parameters on the calibration curves was investigated. We have focused on oak wood. The best parameters result in a calibration curve with the largest correlation coefficient R2 and the highest slope of the line k. On this basis, we can determine the mass loss during the thermal modification of unknown samples of the same wood species under the same measurement conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Science and Technology of Lignocellulosic Materials)
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12 pages, 2927 KiB  
Article
Effects of Modified Cellulose Fiber and Nanofibril Integration on Basic and Thermo-Mechanical Properties of Paper
by Ayyüce Güzide Teke, Celil Atik, Jani Bertoncelj, Ida Poljanšek and Primož Oven
Forests 2023, 14(11), 2150; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14112150 - 29 Oct 2023
Viewed by 980
Abstract
This study investigates the influence of fiber modification methods and beating degrees on the properties of paper sheets. Two different methods were used to modify fibers: NaOH + urea and TEMPO ((2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-yl)oxidanyl) and blended with traditional paper fibers. Subsequently, we evaluated the resulting [...] Read more.
This study investigates the influence of fiber modification methods and beating degrees on the properties of paper sheets. Two different methods were used to modify fibers: NaOH + urea and TEMPO ((2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-yl)oxidanyl) and blended with traditional paper fibers. Subsequently, we evaluated the resulting sheets for their optical, strength, and thermo-mechanical characteristics. Notably, we also scrutinized sheets created exclusively with 100% TEMPO-modified fibers. The addition of modified fibers led to improvements in several strength properties, but it had a noteworthy negative impact on the optical properties of TEMPO-treated fibers compared to the other papers. Furthermore, thermal analysis revealed that the contraction rates of the samples increased considerably up to 40–50 °C for the out-of-plane direction and surpassed 130 °C for the in-plane direction. In general, the inclusion of modified fibers had a significant effect on thermo-mechanical properties. Specifically, TEMPO modification resulted in an increase in the maximum in-plane contraction ratio, shifting it from −0.40% to −0.59%, along with its corresponding temperature. This research underscores the potential of modified fibers to enhance paper properties and contribute to the development of more sustainable paper-based products. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Science and Technology of Lignocellulosic Materials)
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11 pages, 3184 KiB  
Article
Co-Combustion Investigation of Wood Pellets Blended with FFP2 Masks: Analysis of the Ash Melting Temperature
by Nikola Čajová Kantová, Michal Holubčík, Alexander Čaja, Juraj Trnka, Peter Hrabovský and Pavol Belány
Forests 2023, 14(3), 636; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14030636 - 21 Mar 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 930
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic brought a period of high consumption of protective masks and an increase in their waste. Therefore, it was necessary to look at possibilities for their disposal. This article is focused on the disposal of FFP2 masks in the form of [...] Read more.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought a period of high consumption of protective masks and an increase in their waste. Therefore, it was necessary to look at possibilities for their disposal. This article is focused on the disposal of FFP2 masks in the form of pellets blended with sawdust. Further, their ash melting behavior was observed. The method of ash preparation can impact the resulting values of melting temperatures. Therefore, this article investigates the resulting values of ash melting temperatures determined during different ash preparations, such as temperatures (550 °C and 815 °C) and ash size (non-sifted, smaller than 50 µm and 100 µm). All measured deformation temperatures were higher than 1100 °C and even higher than 1200 °C for some samples. Moreover, the presence of FFP2 masks in pellets only insignificantly affected the values of melting temperatures compared to pure wood pellets. The measured values also showed that increasing the temperature of ash preparation from 550 to 815 °C can increase the resulting values of melting temperature. The most significant proportion of the fraction size on the resulting melting temperatures was observed for beech with 5% and 10% of masks at an ash temperature of 550 °C and for spruce with 10% of masks at an ash temperature of 815 °C. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Science and Technology of Lignocellulosic Materials)
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15 pages, 2868 KiB  
Article
Effect of Xylanase-Assisted Treatment of Oxygen-Delignified Eucalypt Kraft Pulp on ECF Bleaching
by José M. S. Matos, Dmitry V. Evtuguin, António P. M. Sousa and Maria Graça V. S. Carvalho
Forests 2023, 14(2), 396; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14020396 - 15 Feb 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1278
Abstract
The effects of treating industrial (laboratory-unwashed) oxygen-delignified eucalypt kraft pulp with a commercial endo-xylanase (X) on ECF bleaching performance were evaluated. Changes in fibre morphology, pulp bleachability and quality, and bleaching effluent parameters were assessed. Although no significant morphological changes were observed, fibres [...] Read more.
The effects of treating industrial (laboratory-unwashed) oxygen-delignified eucalypt kraft pulp with a commercial endo-xylanase (X) on ECF bleaching performance were evaluated. Changes in fibre morphology, pulp bleachability and quality, and bleaching effluent parameters were assessed. Although no significant morphological changes were observed, fibres showed some external fibrillation. The X stage reduced both the amount and the integrity of xylans remaining in the fibres, causing their redistribution inside the cell wall. In bleaching, the X treatment allowed the reduction of ClO2 and NaOH loads by 20 and 10%, respectively. Furthermore, the brightness stability of enzyme-treated bleached pulps was improved, which was assigned to the decrease in the content of hexenuronic acid residues. The X treatment did not affect the cellulosic counterpart of pulp and did not cause a significant impact on the papermaking properties, even when xylan degradation was somewhat excessive. The enzymatic treatment caused a significant increase in the chemical oxygen demand (COD) of the respective effluent. The realistic conditions used provide a better insight into the overall impact of this technology at a pulp mill. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Science and Technology of Lignocellulosic Materials)
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