TY - JOUR

T1 - Delignification and Densification as a Route to Enable the Use of Wheat Straw for Structural Materials

AU - Neudecker, Felix

AU - Jakob, Matthias

AU - Bodner, Sabine

AU - Keckes, Jozef

AU - Buerstmayr, Hermann

AU - Gindl-Altmutter, Wolfgang

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.

PY - 2023/5/4

Y1 - 2023/5/4

N2 - Cereal straw is an abundant byproduct of crop production. Despite little current use in materials, the biologicallyoptimized structure, which carries the weight of a structure up to 1.5 m high and protects it against environmental impacts, showsconsiderable potential. In order to be able to use this renewable material for structural purposes, barriers such as small dimensionsand a low density have to be overcome. In the present study, lignin was partially removed from wheat straw using an alkaline solutionwith the aim of increasing the relative cellulose content and improving malleability. Thereafter, a homogeneous, dense, and multi-layered material was produced by densification at elevated temperatures. Outstanding improvements in mechanical performancewere obtained compared to the untreated raw material. For the optimum variant, tensile strength increased by a factor of three(average strength 218 MPa) and elastic modulus increased by a factor of four (average 13 GPa), which is within the range ofestablished wood-based structural materials. We propose that mild alkaline treatment as carried out in the present study maysignificantly facilitate the development of high-value structural materials based on little utilized cereal straw.

AB - Cereal straw is an abundant byproduct of crop production. Despite little current use in materials, the biologicallyoptimized structure, which carries the weight of a structure up to 1.5 m high and protects it against environmental impacts, showsconsiderable potential. In order to be able to use this renewable material for structural purposes, barriers such as small dimensionsand a low density have to be overcome. In the present study, lignin was partially removed from wheat straw using an alkaline solutionwith the aim of increasing the relative cellulose content and improving malleability. Thereafter, a homogeneous, dense, and multi-layered material was produced by densification at elevated temperatures. Outstanding improvements in mechanical performancewere obtained compared to the untreated raw material. For the optimum variant, tensile strength increased by a factor of three(average strength 218 MPa) and elastic modulus increased by a factor of four (average 13 GPa), which is within the range ofestablished wood-based structural materials. We propose that mild alkaline treatment as carried out in the present study maysignificantly facilitate the development of high-value structural materials based on little utilized cereal straw.

KW - agricultural by-products

KW - alkaline treatment

KW - delignification

KW - densification

KW - tensile strength

KW - wheat straw

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85159564684&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1021/acssuschemeng.3c01375

DO - 10.1021/acssuschemeng.3c01375

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85159564684

VL - 11.2023

SP - 7596

EP - 7604

JO - ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering

JF - ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering

SN - 2168-0485

IS - 19

ER -