Item

Abstract

As the common culture substrate for fungi in traditional Chinese herbal medicine, such as Poria cocos (a brown-rot fungus), pine usually is deeply degraded and then discarded as a kind of agricultural waste, lacking further utilization. Herein, masson pine (Pinus massoniana) and brown-rotted masson pine were liquefied with polyethylene glycol and glycerol under the catalysis of sulfuric acid for different times (15, 30, and 60 min). The main objective was to investigate the effect of the chemical composition of brown-rotted wood and reaction time on the liquefaction behavior and properties of liquefied products, including bio-polyol and phenolic products, to guide the brown-rotted wood liquefaction and utilization. In terms of the total yield of liquefied products, brown-rotted pine with high lignin content (82.21%) had a higher liquefaction efficiency. The yield and hydroxyl number of bio-polyol, obtained from brown-rotted pine and sound pine, were affected by reaction time, of which the maximum hydroxyl number was 358 and 474 mg KOH/g, respectively. The optimal reaction time of brown-rotted pine was 15 min. The chemical composition of phenolic products from brown-rotted pine and sound pine was similar, but the apparent morphology and pore structure were remarkably distinguished that consisting of spherical particles and honeycomb structure, respectively. It suggested the phenolic products might be the polymers produced by nucleation and agglomeration between intermediates from the different compositions, resulting in varied structural characteristics. The higher liquefaction efficiency and the higher yield of phenolic products confirmed that the liquefaction of brown-rotted wood is feasible and has potential application advantages, which gives insight into the efficient utilization of brown-rotted agricultural waste. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.