ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Two-step strategy for the comprehensive utilization of tobacco stem

Xinyu Yang, Zechun Liu, Jiangsheng Liu, Jie Zheng, Xingyong Li, Shuirong Li, Yueyuan Ye, Wei Xie, Jianping Zhang, Hongqiao Lan, Dechao Wang, and Zhifeng Zheng

Fujian Provincial Industry Technologies Development Base for New Energy, Fujian Provincial Engineering and Research Center of Clean and High-Valued Technologies for Biomass, Xiamen Key Laboratory for High-Valued Conversion Technology of Agricultural Biomass, College of Energy, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China

E-mail: zjp10586@fjtic.cn

Received: 17 July 2022  Accepted: 12 September 2022

Abstract:

Tobacco stem (TS) is a by-product of tobacco industry, and the conventional landfill and incineration will lead to the release of nitrogen-containing compounds and cause a series of environmental and ecological problems. The removal of alkaloids in TS is a key step for the further utilization of TS. In this study, a two-step strategy including leaching treatment and pyrolysis has been reported to remove alkaloids. The results showed that the leaching treatment not only reduces the content of nitrogen-containing compounds effectively, but also removes some metal inorganic salts. The peak area of nicotine (C₁₀H₁₄N₂) decreased from 45.03 × 10⁶/mg to 4.31 × 10⁶/mg, and the number of free radicals increases. The biochar from L-TS has a lower degree of graphitization, looser structure, lower H/C ratio and oxygen-containing functional group content. With the increase of the pyrolysis temperature, the secondary reaction results in the decomposition of oxygen-containing macromolecules and aromatic compounds to form small molecules chemicals.

Keywords: Tobacco stem; Leaching pretreatment; Pyrolysis; Bio-char; Nicotine

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-022-02491-8

Chemical Papers 77 (4) 1797–1808 (2023)