Production and characterization of cellulose acetate using olive tree pruning biomass as feedstock

Olive tree pruning (OTP) is one of the most abundant sources of biomass waste in the Mediterranean basin. This is especially relevant in southern Spain where olive oil production represents a large part of the economy. Olive tree prunings are mostly either burned or are spread in olive orchards as an organic amendment, or used for heat generation on a domestic scale. However, the lignocellulosic composition of OTP makes it a potential source of biopolymers, thus providing an excellent economic alternative for the olive oil sector. In this work, pretreated OTP fibers were subjected to an optimized alkaline treatment followed by a single-step bleaching reaction with H2O2. Afterwards, the cellulose pulp was transformed chemically to obtain cellulose acetate. Noncellulosic components were removed effectively from OTP, thus obtaining a pulp highly purified in cellulose with 71% crystallinity and 355 degrees C maximum degradation temperature. Nevertheless, a very large amount of cellulose (ca. 50%) was eliminated throughout the process, especially during acid pretreatment, which was responsible for 38% solubilization. A similar level of acetylation and degree of substitution was obtained by using acetylation times in the range of 1 to 6 h. No large differences were observed in the infrared spectra and X-ray diffractograms of the synthesized acetates. However, their thermal stability varied significantly with reaction time, evolving from a multistep degradation pattern to a single and sharp peak between 300 and 400 degrees C with increasing time. Thermogravimetric curves revealed that at least 5 h (preferably 6 h) were needed to obtain cellulose acetate from OTP with adequate thermal stability for further processing.