Developing sustainable and energy efficient process to obtain high purity cellulose and its value-added chemicals from rice straw

This study addresses the environmental impact of traditional rice straw burning practices in agriculture and explores sustainable alternatives. Utilizing lignocellulose waste, the research developed an energy-efficient process involving Alkali Pretreatment and Acid & Bleaching Pretreatment to obtain highly purified cellulose, after that analysed by qualitative and quantitative analysis, FT-IR and the Van Soest method were used, respectively. Thermal stability and crystallinity of acid-treated rice straw and bleached-treated rice straw were evaluated via DSC. The outcomes showed that different pretreatments produced purified cellulose and removed 93 % of the lignin. By using transition metal catalysts for depolymerization, value-added chemicals were produced, as measured by HPLC, generated glucose, Sorbitol, Arabinose, Ribose, and organic acids (HMF, THF). Overall, this study provides insights into the potential use of rice straw as a substrate for extraction of high-purity cellulose and value-added chemicals production, offering a reliable and energy-efficient process. [Display omitted] •High quality (87 %) purified cellulose extracted from rice straw•Maximum cellulose-to-chemicals conversion using metal catalyst within 4 h•Cellulose-to-glucose conversion efficiency 87.6 %