Cover Picture: Enhancement of the Amazonian Açaí Waste Fibers through Variations of Alkali Pretreatment Parameters (C&B 9/2019)

Cover Picture. The wine fruit of açaí (Euterpe oleraceae, Mart.) has been widely consumed in the north Brazilian region providing food security for urban and forestry communities. The major drawback of the açaí production chain lays on the large amounts of fibrous wastes from the fruit depulping that are disposed in the environment. In an attempt to improve the properties of açaí fibers favoring their usage in advanced materials, alkali pretreatments were carried out. Enhancements achieved were separation of fibers into bundles, unblocking of pit channels by removing silicon structures, exposure of the inner lignin, partial removal of non‐cellulosic compounds, and increase of the cellulose crystalline index. This study reveals that the unique structure of açaí fibers has strong potential for purposes related to silicon‐containing structures extraction and filters due to their large pits and highly porous structure, as reported by de Oliveira et al. in their full paper at 10.1002/cbdv.201900275.